Samcedes Random Bits and Pieces
by secondchances2014
Summary: A small collection of random unconnected Samcedes drabbles and shorts. Please note that these stories are all reposts from my old account and are a couple of years old. They belong to the nostalgic time of Samcedes fanfiction before dreadful things became cannon and influenced plotlines. Disclaimer: Glee is someone else's problem
1. Our Day Will Come

**_NOTE: This is just a collection of Samcedes drabbles and shorts moved over from my old profile 'emzjuk'. Please note that they are edited reposts and not new fics._**

**_They were written in 2011 and 2012 so the timing and characterization belongs to that time. Just wanted to post them back online rather than leave them in Word on my laptop._**

**_They're also my early fanfiction stuff so they're not great but I like to think I got a little better with practice._**

* * *

**_First up: Our Day Will Come (Drabble written late 2011 based on the Amy Winehouse cover released at that time.)_**

Sam stared into the glassy chocolate drop eyes of the girl he loved.

This was not the way it was supposed to happen. Not the way it was destined to end. But there was nothing in his power that he could do right now to change things.

But as soon as he could he definitely would. Mercedes Jones was a keeper and he was not going to let a stupid move to another State get in their way.

_Our day will come_  
_And we'll have everything._  
_We'll share the joy_  
_Falling in love can bring._

_No one can tell me_  
_That I'm too young to know (young to know)_  
_I love you so (love you so)_  
_And you love me._

_Our day will come_  
_If we just wait a while._  
_No tears for us -_  
_Think love and wear a smile._

_Our dreams have magic_  
_Because we'll always stay_  
_In love this way_  
_Our day will come._  
_(Our day will come; our day will come.)_

_Our dreams have magic_  
_Because we'll always stay_  
_In love this way._  
_Our day will come._  
_Our day will come._

Mercedes struggled to hold back the tears as they leaned against her car.

Sam kissed her softly on the lips and then rested his forehead against hers.

Life had thrown a complete curveball when he had fallen in love with her. It was unexpected, beautiful and _completely right. _The one light in months of darkness.

Then as soon as one thing in his life got good, something else had gone bad. The second ball knocked the first one right out the park. The initial excitement of hearing his dad had been offered an amazing position with his previous employers had been rapidly followed by the realization of what it meant for the family. The uprooting of all they had come to know in Lima. The ending of the new life they had found. The leaving behind of new friends and his Glee family.

But leaving Mercedes was by far the worst part of all. With her by his side he knew he would be able to get through anything.

But she wouldn't be there.

"This was supposed to be _our_ time!" Her words came out as a pained whisper and he shared their sentiment.

"Our time _will_ come. And I promise you when it does, we'll never have to say goodbye again!"

He looked across the motel parking lot to his dad who was putting the last of their belongings into the small U-Haul trailer attached to their car. Their eyes met. They would be leaving soon.

Sam closed his eyes and trailed kisses on her wet salty cheeks before returning to her strawberry lips.

She suddenly pulled back. "I have something for you."

He watched as she leaned into her car window and grabbed the small purple beanie bear.

"There was no time for wrapping so he comes as is." She sighed as she handed him the gift. It was a priceless one.

"I can't take Prince Charming! He goes everywhere with you!"

"And now he goes everywhere with _you_!"

Sam forced a watery smile. "Are you trying to ruin my _cool _reputation Mercy?"

She forced herself to match his expression but it was hard. "Just want to make sure all those Southern girls keep their hands off you. I expect Prince Charming to return with a glowing report!"

Sam gently stroked the head of the bear. "As long as he's with me, you're with me."

It was the hardest goodbye...

* * *

As soon as she opened her locker she knew.

Inside was Prince Charming. He was sitting on a box of chocolates, clutching a pink heart shaped sticky note with the words 'Today is our day...' in a familiar scrawl.

She didn't need to turn around to know that he was there. Right behind her.

Every nerve ending in her body was already on fire and she could smell his scent.

Before she could organize her thoughts to form words her back was forced against the lockers and his lips had crashed down onto hers with an intensity that took her breath away and made her knees weak. There was no need for a word as trivial as 'hello'. Instead he went for something far better.

"I love you Mercy!"

"Not as much as I love _you_ Sam!"

In what sounded like the far distance there were shouts and whoops.

There was even what sounded like Santana shouting 'Work those guppy lips Trouty!'

None of it mattered.

Their day was here, their secret was out and there was no going back!


	2. Rising To The Top

**Rising To The Top : _Pubished April 2012 following that scene in the classroom with the video the speech and the kiss…_**

* * *

"Oh hell to the NOOOOOOOO!"

Just in time, Mercedes managed to refrain from throwing her beloved iPad across the room, opting instead to hurl every pillow and other small item within her reach. "I can't believe this is happening! Not now! Not today! Especially not today! Not of all days! Why?"

Today was the day before the Grammys. She purposely had nothing planned to do other than a quick meeting with her producers, a brief visit to the gym, a final rehearsal and camera check for her performance and her final dress fitting.

This was the second year in a row that she was going to the ceremony. Last year she'd been nominated in the Best New Artist category. She hadn't won, but the exposure had done wonders for her musical career. This time round she had five nominations. And until precisely thirty seconds ago, she'd truly believed that this might have been her year.

"Please let this not be true!" The words came out as a strangled sob.

Because now her world had come crashing down.

Now everything was ruined.

Forever.

With shaking hands she could barely see through her tears as she grabbed her phone and hit redial on the last caller. It was answered after less than a ring.

"Baby, don't panic. It'll all be oka-"

"How the hell am I _not_ supposed to panic!"

"Mercy calm do-"

"I'm ruined! This whole thing is ruined! And the timing couldn't be any worse. I've worked so hard to avoid scandal and now it's found me!"

"We'll sort this-"

"Sort it? How the hell are we going to do that? Oh Sam, my parents don't even know about this. By the time they wake up and see the news they'll be devastated!"

"I'm sure we can come up with some kind of damage control-"

"But Sam-"

"Will you STOP interrupting me baby!"

Mercedes took a raggedy breath and gulped down a sob. She heard him sigh and without seeing him, knew that he would be running his hand through his hair before speaking in a calmer tone. "This is all my fault." She heard footsteps as he began to pace. "Mercy, we knew this was going to happen one day. Call Ashley, she's trained to deal with this kind of stuff. She'll help talk you through it. It's her job for goodness sake!"

This is exactly why she needed Sam. Ashley was her agent. Of course she would be able to handle this. In fact, she didn't know why she hadn't thought of that herself! The initial shock had stopped her from thinking straight.

"But Sam, my parents are going to go crazy when they read this!"

"I know. I've only just got off the phone to mine. They didn't know either. They were really upset that we hadn't told them. Or, more importantly, that _I_ had deceived them for so long. But it had to come out at some point. It was inevitable after all. The press are always digging for the next story."

It was her turn to sigh. "I guess so." She twirled the corner of her duvet around her forefinger band lowered her voice sadly. "I just wish you were here with me Sam."

"So do I! But I'll be back in time for tomorrow night. I promise."

"I know you will."

She heard him shifting again. "Okay baby, I have to go and get ready now. I need to get some breakfast and-"

"Breakfast? _Breakfast?_ How the hell can you be thinking about your stomach at a time like this?"

"Don't be so silly-"

"Oh so now I'm being silly? You know what Sam, just forget it!"

"Wait-" She knew he would never have meant to call her silly but she wasn't prepared to hear anything from him right now.

With a yell she ended the call and flung the phone across the room just like the other items. She watched as it hit the laminate floor, the back flying off in one direction while the battery fell out and skidded in another.

Then she dived face first back onto the duvet and sobbed.

* * *

"Oh my god Kurt, have you read this?"

Kurt eyed his boyfriend from the coffee machine as he placed two espresso cups underneath it. "How could I have possibly read anything in there when you've had the paper the whole time since we got up!"

Blaine shrugged but disturbingly didn't raise a smile. He smoothed out the page he was reading and held it up closer to his nose. "Ok, listen to this!"

Kurt raised an eyebrow at Blaine's nervous tone.

"Actually babe, on second thoughts, I think you might need to sit down for this."

Kurt opened his mouth to make a sarcastic comment but seeing the expression on Blaine's face quickly closed it again. Without breaking eye contact he walked backwards towards the seat on the table opposite Blaine and sat in it heavily. "This had better be good!"

Blaine cleared his throat before he began reading:

"The pre-Grammy rumor mill has been buzzing with reports that one of its star performers is dating a former stripper. The phenomenal singer Mercedes Jones has been photographed with Samuel Evans, 25, a former stripper for the nightclub Stallionz in Kentucky who went by the name of White Chocolate.

As well as being nominated in five categories in this year's prestigious ceremony, including Best Album for the huge chart success 'Rising To The Top', Miss Jones is also due to perform a vocal tribute to the late Whitney Houston who sadly passed away six years ago.

Until now, the curvaceous diva has always famously remained tight lipped about her personal life. Despite this, her name has been connected to several celebrities over the last year, including the recently divorced Jay-Z, although nothing has ever been conclusive with the singer rarely being seen out and about."

Kurt failed to control the snort that came before he could suppress it and rolled his eyes with a sigh. "Jay-Z! Really? Is that the best they could come up with?"

Blaine shot hit a death glare at the same time that he landed him a swift kick under the table and continued reading:

"A source close to the couple revealed that she and White Chocolate were just 'having a bit of fun' as Miss Jones has no plans of settling down at this pivotal point in her career."

Kurt groaned and squeezed his temple with his hand, attempting to immediately undo the damage that his frown was causing. "Fuckery…" he muttered to himself, "complete and utter fuckery!" He pulled out his phone and immediately called his long-time friend and client but the call went straight to voicemail.

With a sigh he quickly stood. Today was going to be a tough day but nothing he couldn't handle. His bestie needed him to be strong and by hell he was going to be! "Blaine, I need you to call Satan and find out all you can about the bitch who wrote the article. I'm going round to Cedes'. She's probably locked herself in the bathroom as we speak."

"I'm already on it!" Blaine picked up his phone and immediately started scrolling the contacts on his cell. Kurt turned back to the coffee machine. He grabbed one of the espressos and knocked it straight back like a shot of Tequila. He took the other with him, ignoring the protests of Blaine as he left the room.

* * *

"Mr Hummel, do you have any comments about Miss Jones' stripper friend?"  
"Mr Hummel you guys have known each other for years, do you know who this guy is?"  
"Mr Hummel, have you designed both the Grammy dresses for Miss Jones?"

Kurt turned dramatically to face the small group of reporters who had gathered at the entrance to Mercedes' apartment building. "Miss Jones requests that you respect her privacy. Neither she nor I have anything to say on the subject, so I suggest your time would be used more wisely chasing up some other story." With a flick of his hair he turned to face the one reporter who was actually filming. He shot a winning smile at the young girl who was clearly new to the E! channel because he'd never seen her before. Leaning towards her microphone he said, "And yes, I personally designed both Ms Jones's dresses myself. Prepare to be dazzled!"

With that he turned and made his way into the building, waving and smiling at Christopher, the handsome concierge as he passed.

"I see we have a code-red on our hands!" Kurt stared down at Mercedes who was slumped on her bed wearing an oversized teeshirt, pajama shorts and a pair of puffy eyes.

"Who the hell gave you keys to my apartment?" she hissed.

He took her sass in his stride. "You did. Two years ago. Besides, you knew I was coming. I messaged you and I know you never go anywhere without that iPad."

She said nothing but her eyes told him that she was grateful that he was there. "I need to use your phone."

Without a word he reached into his satchel and pulled out his spare handset. He fought a smile as he watched her reach for her phone which was now sporting a shattered screen and purposely didn't ask how it happened. She opened the back, pulled out the sim and transferred it to the phone that he had just given her. "You know I keep telling you to put carpet in here. You're lucky I keep this one as a spare."

She made a sound which was a lot like 'harumph' while she switched on the phone and waited for the welcome screen to finish loading. Ignoring the way it immediately beeped and buzzed with texts, voicemails, emails and instant messages she instantly made a call.

"Sam, it's me. I'm so sorry for yelling and sorry hanging up. I was just thinking crazy upset things and took it out on you because you were there." She paused and sighed. "I was hoping to catch you before you went in for your pitch but I guess I missed you. I just wanted to wish you luck and tell you that I'm sorry and I love you. I didn't mean to take it out on you. Call me when you get this and let me know how it went. I miss you so much baby. Love you."

While she was talking, Kurt moved to sit on the edge of her bed. When she finished she crawled over to him and let him squeeze her into a tight embrace. "Thanks for coming Kurt!"

He said nothing, just squeezing her harder until she giggled, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Today is going to be the worst day of my life!"

"I know honey. But we're going to get through it one minute at a time."

"I just finished speaking to my parents. Apparently they already knew!"

"How? You never told them!"

"I know. Apparently it was Shane attempting to discredit Sam after we broke up. It seems they decided back at that time that if I could deal with it then so could they!"

"Wow!"

"Yeah. I know. And I felt so scared having to wake them up to tell them before the news hit over there. Sadly Sam's parents haven't taken it quite so well."

"That's understandable. He lied to their faces at the time, telling them that he was working at the Dairy Queen, and he's kept it a secret for all these years since. I'm sure they'll come round tho. They love him to bits. And he did it for them. He did it for love."

"I know that and I respect him for it. But not all my fans do. I'm a role model. I try hard to make sure that the decisions I make are positive ones. There's very few young black women like me for girls to look up to and people are always looking for excuses to throw mud."

"There'll always be haters. You haven't let them get to you before and you're not going to start now!"

"That's true. But I swear, if I ever get hands on whoever wrote that article…"

"Santana's on to it."

"Santana! Oh my god I haven't heard from her in forever! How is she?"

"She's in Washington at the moment. Ironically enough, she stays in touch with Blaine quite a bit and has a lot of journalism contacts. Between those and the razor blades she still keeps in her hair we'll see if there's any way that we can get to the bottom of this."

"You think she'd do that for me?"

"She was always your Troubletone sister. Of course she will! So, what's the plan for today?"

"Ashley's managed to cancel my meeting. All I need to do is make a couple of Skype calls and I have nothing else official to do. Final sound and camera checks can be done tomorrow and I'm skipping the song rehearsal."

"You don't need the song rehearsal anyway! Your voice is always flawless."

She rolled her eyes at him but smiled anyway. "What it means is that at least I get to hide in here all day."

Kurt arched one eyebrow. "Aren't we forgetting something?"

"Ugh!" She flopped back down onto the bed. "The dresses!"

"_Yes_ the dresses. They're in my workshop and I need you to try them on one final time young lady so like it or not you _will_ be leaving this apartment today."

She buried her face in her hands with a groan. "How many are outside?"

"Not many. I told them not to waste their time as you won't be making any statements. Hopefully they'll give up quick!"

* * *

A finally showered and dresses Mercedes stepped out of her room to the sound of Wyclef's 'Perfect Gentleman' coming from the TV in the lounge. As she approached Kurt quickly changed the channel. After holding it together in front of Kurt, she had broken down again in the shower once the spray had hit her. Tomorrow was supposed to be the biggest night of her life. Now instead of talking about her music, people were musing over her personal life.

"How bad is it?"

Kurt shrugged. "There's no such thing as bad publicity! Lots of people are saying that he's hot. They keep endlessly showing some photo of Sam on stage with two others wearing nothing but a little pair of red shorts, mid body-roll."

Despite herself she had to smile. "Damn that Windy City! Got me every time! He'd spent the summer perfecting it."

"I'm sure he did!"

"_Kurt!_" She reached over to smack him. "It was an innocent summer. You know that."

"True. But nobody cares. All they know is that Sam looks like he could really put it down!"

She cringed. "Ugh. Thanks for that. And to top it off I've now got that song in my head."

"What song?"

"You didn't switch the channel fast enough."

Kurt frowned in confusion until she started to body-roll and sing in the middle of the room.

"_Just coz he dances Go-Go  
__That don't make him a hoe no  
__Sammy put your red shorts on  
__We're going to the disco  
__We're gonna e-e-e-elope to Me-e-e-exico  
__Called up my moma Said I'm in love with a stripper YO!_"

He held his face in his hands in mock despair at her out of character performance. "Promise me you will _never_ _ever _do that outside of this room!"

She grinned. "Hmmm… I don't know... I was thinking I might give Sam his own private dance tomorrow night when he gets back."

He continued to shake his head. "TMI baby! TMI!"

She continued to smile as she collapsed onto the seat next to him and unsuccessfully tried to wrestle the remote out of his hand. "Seriously Kurt. Just let me see what they're saying about me!"

"It's not as bad as you think. They keep rehashing that stupid Jay-Z rumor and making unfair comparisons or they just liken the whole thing to The Bodyguard."

"The Bodyguard? Oh hell no please do NOT tell me it's because he's white!"

Kurt just shrugged. "It could be to do with you singing Whitney!"

"That's a pile of crap and you know it. I have never even spoken to Jay-Z before! We happened to be in the same room as each other once and that's it. But everyone decides we'd look good together. That we'd be perfect for each other. His ex was a black singer with a big butt and so am I which clearly means…"

"I don't think they mean it like that"

"Oh come on Kurt. I always ignore all the names they try and put me with. But have you noticed every single one of them is black? The lightest skin anyone's ever tried to pair me with was Bruno Mars after we sang that duet at a charity event! Even in this day and age, women like me don't go with white men. If you're petite and light skinned or mixed then maybe, but definitely not someone this big and black!"

He reached over and pulled her into an embrace. "Don't let anyone discredit your relationship."

"I'm trying. But the article says we're just some sort of fling. But it's been seven years Kurt, _seven years_!"

"You guys are solid Cedes. Don't let anyone make you believe otherwise."

She pulled back slightly. "What if it's me?"

"What do you mean?"

"A couple of years ago, Sam asked me to marry him. And I said yes, but not yet. What if he thinks I'm stalling? What if he uses this drama to end things with me because I'm dragging my heels with our relationship because of my career?"

Kurt shook his head. "Sam loves you. He'd never just leave. He fought hard to be with you and would never simply throw that away. And he knows you love him. But your career is a part of you too. He was there right at the beginning pushing you to believe in yourself and go for it. He's not going to turn his back on you once it actually starts happening."

"I hope you're right."

"I _know_ I'm right Cedes!"

* * *

For the next twenty-four hours Kurt cancelled all his other clients so that he could stay by her side. They spent most of the time hidden in his workshop behind his boutique store while he hand-finished her dresses. They talked, laughed, reminisced and hid from the world.

He held Mercedes when she cried after Sam called to say that his flight had been delayed which meant he wouldn't have the chance to see her before the ceremony. But there was no way in the world he was going to miss it, even if it meant chartering a flight of his own. She needed him more than ever and that fact was scaring her. Being with Sam was as natural to her as breathing.

The next afternoon, while she was having her hair done, Blaine walked in with a smile and a coffee for her. She took it gratefully and accepted his kiss.

"You look beautiful."

"Thanks. You don't scrub up too badly yourself! Kurt said you might be popping over."

He nodded. "I've just got off the phone with Santana."

Mercedes excused the two girls who were working on her hair and waited for him to speak.

"So it seems our favorite Latina has been busy going Lima Heights Adjacent on a certain professional Linebacker!"

Her eyes nearly bugged out of her head. "Wait! _Shane Tinsley_?"

"The one and only. In his defense, it doesn't seem like it was done maliciously. Apparently he was trying to get some pretty young journalist into bed and had lured her in with the promise of an exclusive story on a celebrity. You and Sam were simply the first thing that came to his head. The paparazzi pictures of the two of you were already out in the public domain. It was simply a matter of putting a name to the face and it would have happened at some point anyway."

"I know. It was all Sam's fault. The guy just can't seem to keep his hands off my ass in private or in public!"

"Do you blame him?"

Her response was a giggle but Blaine straightened up and folded his arms across his chest. "Seriously, I'm gay but I still would!"

"Still would what?" They both turned to see a flustered Kurt carrying two massive dress bags. Blaine rushed over to help.

"We were talking about how Sam can't keep his hands off her ass and I was letting her know that he wasn't the only one who was tempted to go there."

Kurt nodded the affirmative. "Your ass has had a harem right since Glee club. Why do you think Sam was so desperate to get you back and claim you in front of everyone!"

She shook her head, laughing. "I take it you heard who the culprit was behind the revelation in the article?"

Kurt nodded. "How do you feel?"

She sighed. "You know what. I'm not even going to stress about this anymore. Shane is a distant part of my history that I don't even think about anymore. I'm proud of Sam and what he did for his family. I love him and I'm ready for the whole world to know it. His pitch went well yesterday and he's about to become a successful businessman in his own right with his new animation series. I need to let him shine by my side."

Kurt leaned in and kissed her forehead. "It's right where he belongs darling!

* * *

"And the winner of Best Album is…" There was a pause as the envelope seemingly refused to open until Adele gave up and just ripped it before grinning and leaning into the microphone. "My own personal favorite album of the year... 'Rising To The Top' by Mercedes Jones!"

The sound was deafening and the lights were flashing so brightly that she could barely see but she was still able to grin and cheer.

For the third time that evening, Mercedes stood and shuffled her way out of the row and walked on to the stage. There to meet her was Adele, statue in hand. She kissed her softly on the cheek and stood back, allowing Mercedes to have the podium.

"Wow…" She had to pause and take a couple of deep breaths. "_Three_ Grammys! This is a dream come true!"

The entire auditorium broke out in spontaneous applause and she fought hard to concentrate on what she was going to say next. "I didn't think I was going to be up here again tonight so I've already thanked everyone that I wanted to thank." About to flee the stage she suddenly paused. "Actually, no. There _is_ one person left that I haven't thanked yet from the stage yet. I was going to wait until after the show to do it in person, but I think now is the perfect opportunity. I hadn't prepared a speech so I'm just going to speak from my heart."

She looked hard into the audience, searching for a face. "There's one person who's been with me in this since the beginning. One person, who in high school, had the sheer nerve to abuse the skills of the AV club to put my name up in lights, because he believed that we would be seeing my name up in lights for the rest of our lives.

This foolish boy dared to sit in class and shamelessly film me performing, then immediately posted the video on YouTube. Some of you might remember that Mercedes Inferno clip. That short clip taken on a phone camera somehow went viral, became a channel and those were the small beginnings of Miss Mercedes Jones. At the time, when I asked why he did it, he said it was because he believed in me and what I could become. He told me that it was time for my dream to stop being a dream and become a reality. That I was the cream 'rising to the top'.

He is the most focused and self-determined man that I know. I've never known anyone more fiercely passionate about the ones that he loves, ready to defend those who are being hurt and sacrifice himself and his pride. He joined an unpopular sports team in school for me. He took repeated slushies to the the face in those hallways for me. To have to take work in a strip club during a tough economic time in order to help support your family is _nothing_ to be ashamed of. I am proud to be with someone who would go to any length to care their loved ones. I've been on the receiving end of it and I know that it's the greatest feeling in the world.

Years ago, back in school, one random morning in the hallway when we weren't even together, this guy asked if I would ever get married one day. And I said, 'yeah, after my first Grammy'. Now suddenly I'm standing up here and I have three and I realize that I'd better put things right real quick. So Sam, where are you?"

There was a sudden shuffle in the audience and all eyes went to where Sam was sitting, the spotlight suddenly falling on him and his face filling the huge screen. Her eyes immediately filled with tears. She touched her heart then reached out her hand towards him and he replicated the gesture, first touching his own heart then reaching out his hand towards her. "Sammy baby... Look! We did it! Not just one but _three_ Grammys. And all because of you. Believing in me. And loving me. Right here right now my dream has become a reality. There's just one part left to make it complete. So I need to apologize right now, coz I know the romantic in you wants to be the one to do this, but I sort of have the stage right now, and I really want to say, I love you, I have always loved you and I will always love you. Kurt made this dress so tight that I can't get down on one knee, but I can still ask… Sam Evans... _will you marry me?_"

There was total silence as all looked to Sam for his response and he didn't disappoint. His beaming smile lit up the screen, and even without the use of a microphone his booming 'hell yes!' was heard from the stage.

Mercedes squealed, tears of joy flooding her face as Adele grabbed her by the waist and was the first to offer her congratulations. The entire auditorium broke out in hysterical clapping and cheering as Sam fought his way out of his row to come towards her, his every move caught on camera and beamed live to a record breaking audience.

* * *

In years to come, one of the highlights of the ten Grammy award winning singer/actress Mercedes Jones-Evans' autobiography was the revelation that at that very moment, all she could hear above the noise of the auditorium was the sound of an anonymous producer behind the curtain saying "Screw going to the commercials, I'm _not_ going to pan away. This is TV history being made!"

And it was.

It was her perfect moment.


	3. Begging For Mercy

**_Begging For Mercy (title based on the song by Duffy): Written in December 2011 in response to the release of that hallway scene prior to Chord's return…_** **_This was originally a 7 'drabble' length chapter fic written in one day based on feedback and requests from reviews. Contains Insulting!Shane and a Glee bash as requested by the readers who wanted more of the other Gleeks at the end._**

**_A lot can come from a little cellophane bag of cookies…_**

* * *

_'I don't care how big or bad your boyfriend is. I'm gonna fight to get you back!' _

The words had been echoing around Mercedes' head with alarming frequency since the moment they had left his mouth.

And every time they did, that stupid smile just kept planting itself right back across her face.

It was just the kind of thing that Sam Evans would say. Even when he had nothing, he still always had his passion and fire.

And he seemingly refused let her forget that he was back. Wherever she went he would find her. Not in a creepy stalker way, but in an '_I'm just here at the back of your mind so you don't forget me_' kind of way. A lopsided smile. A nod. A quick 'hey.' That was all. Nothing too forward or presumptuous.

After the initial handholding incident he hadn't pulled any other stunts. So many times when he was near she could feel that he wanted to say something to her, wanted to reach out and touch her. But he didn't.

Sam Evans. Always the gentleman.

But those eyes. Those beautiful green eyes. Those curtainless window to his soul. Those eyes didn't lie. And when their eyes would meet, they would reflect what he was really thinking. How he really felt about her. And more importantly, the battle that he was fighting inside of himself. Whenever she saw them she would think of the long hours over the summer that she'd spent staring into those eyes. Kissing their lids and watching the pupils dilate as they drank her in, raking slowly and leisurely over her body, making her shiver with ecstasy without even being touched.

Glee was the hardest. She wished that she was still with the Troubletones just so that she didn't have to deal with him in that environment. An environment where everyone knew but nothing was ever spoken. The place where songs were sung with lyrics that had double meanings. She damned her subconscious. After making sure to concentrate on not singing the line 'All I want for Christmas is You' at Sam when she performed her rendition, she'd somehow managed to ask him to 'Make Her Wish Come True' instead! Sure she'd covered it up by quickly moving on to Artie for the crucial line instead, and laughing at his freaked out 'Me?' in response, but it was still out there for all to see.

And she hadn't even _thought_ of her boyfriend once while she was singing that song. Surely if that song was for anyone it should be for him?

That wasn't to say that she didn't care about Shane. Because she did. He'd been _beyond_ good to her. She'd met him at the time when she was at her lowest and he had always been there for her in the way that Sam no longer was. He'd listened patiently to her while she had cried over heartbreak and slowly restored a smile back to her face. In return, all he had asked was to be given a chance to prove to her that he was a nice guy. Surely that should be enough? She wasn't as physically attracted to him as she had been to Sam, but theirs was a good friendship. And didn't she and Sam begin with friendship too?

But Sam... just the thought of him and the mention of his name caused pools of warmth to flood places Shane could only dream about.

But she would never be untrue to Shane. He didn't deserve it. People sometimes said things about him behind his back, about his attitude and his views on women. But she hadn't heard him being that way. If she had she wouldn't be with him. Her daddy raised her better than that.

Sam was a wildcard in all senses of the world, while Shane Tinsley offered her the stability she desperately craved after her heartbreak.

"Earth to Miss Jones!"

Mercedes shook herself out of her reverie. It was bad form to drift off thinking about your ex while sitting eating with your current boyfriend!

"You keep drifting on me sweetheart. What's on your mind?"

"Oh it's nothing."

"Clearly it's not nothing. You keep zoning out on me recently. Are you sure everything's okay?"

"I'm fine. I'm just tired I guess."

Shane looked at her with a concerned. Noticing the expression she smiled brightly at him. "I stayed up late finishing my Spanish assignment so it's my own fault really."

He took her hand in his and she stared at their entwined fingers. She really _had_ to stop thinking about Sam while she was with Shane.

"Have you decided what you want me to get you for Christmas yet?"

She shook her head.

"Aw come on. You have to give a guy a clue here!"

Mercedes shrugged. She didn't know what she wanted for Christmas. But she knew if she didn't at least guide him he would go all out and she'd feel terrible.

"How about something purple?"

"Something purple huh." Shane rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

Actually, coming to think of it, maybe she did know what she wanted for Christmas.

But it was something that Shane Tinsley would not be able to provide.

* * *

She'd managed to completely scape Sam on the final day before the Christmas break. There was far too much mistletoe taped up in random places and it would just be her luck to be caught under some with him. It would be a lie to say she had not thought of what it would be like to have the opportunity to kiss him once more. She had thought it several times. Including during lunch when Shane had come sneakily up behind her with a piece of his own.

His kisses were always soft and gentle and she always had to close her eyes. He would think that she was lost when in fact she was only remembering.

Kisses with Sam would start with the intention of being soft and gentle, but would rapidly combust into a blaze of passion. Thinking of it now still took her breath away.

And it made her determined to avoid Sam and mistletoe at all costs.

Her plan had worked, school had ended and she was just heading towards the main entrance with Shane when she heard her name called.

"Mercedes! Wait up a second!" Sam was running towards them looking flustered. "Hi Shane!"

Shane looked at him suspiciously but returned the greeting, his arm growing fractionally tighter around Mercedes' shoulder.

Sam shot them both winning smiles and held out a snowflake covered gift bag to Mercedes.

"It's er - it's from Stacy and Stevie. They wanted to bake you some cookies. Ever since we've had an oven they've been dying to bake something for you to say thanks for all the treats you made them and brought to the motel."

She took the bag with a relieved smile and peeked inside at the little cellophane cookie bundles tied with purple ribbon.

Sam shuffled his feet slightly. "They're all different flavors and the ones at the bottom are super tasty!"

Her hands shook at those last two words and she avoided his eyes.

"Thanks. That's really cute of them. Please thank them with massive cuddles from me."

Sam smiled and stepped back, equally avoiding her eyes. "I will do."

"Oh and Sam? Merry Chrismas!"

"Merry Christmas to you too!" He shot her another of his lopsided grins before nodding to Shane. "To both of you."

Then he spun on his heel and was gone, leaving Shane to wonder what exactly it was that had just happened between them right under his nose.

* * *

"So do I get to sample any of these homemade cookies?" Shane had always been a cookie monster and he asked the second they climbed into his car.

Mercedes smiled as she opened the bag. "Sure. There's more than enough to share and I can't wait to taste them."

One by one she pulled out the little cellophane packs. Sam was right about the different flavors. Each pack was cut into different shapes. There were snowmen and Santas and reindeer. The flavors were chocolate, and vanilla and peanut butter. As she reached into the bag for the final pack she remembered Sam's words about them and slipped back into the past...

_Sam laughed as Stacy curled up comfortably into his girlfriend's lap, slightly jealous as she snuggled up against her breasts. The little girl was smugly nibbling at the last remaining cookie and getting crumbs all over herself and Mercedes. _

_"Stop making a mess Stacy! Just hurry up and eat it! Especially if you're not going to share!" Stevie was pouting because he hadn't been fast enough in reaching the final cookie and all it did was make the little girl nibble even more frustratingly slowly. Sam could barely contain the laughter in his eyes. _

_Stacy shuffled on Mercedes' lap so that she had turned to face her. "Cedes? Why are your cookies always so super tasty?" _

_Mercedes smiled. "That's a secret." _

_"Oh pleaaaaassseee tell me! I promise I can keep a secret!" _

_Stevie stood up. "She can't keep a secret. But I can. You should tell me!" _

_It was Stacy's turn to pout and Mercedes couldn't help but laugh. "Ok then. If you come over here I'll whisper it to both of you, but you have to promise me that you won't tell Sam!" _

_The idea went down well with the children and this time the pout transferred to Sam. "Hey! Why can't I know?" _

_"Because you're too old."_

_"Yeah Sam you're too old!" Stevie leaned in towards Mercedes as she whispered into their ears, carefully covering her mouth with her hand so that Sam wouldn't see what she was saying. _

_"Mercedes! This isn't fair!" _

_Sam's protest fell on deaf ears, and he was met with irritatingly smug facial expressions from his siblings as they giggled at her answer. _

_"That's it!" He put on a mock angry face and lurched towards Stevie. "I'm going to have to tickle it out of you!" _

_"Nooooooo..." _

_Sam grabbed his brother and flung him onto the bed, tickling him mercilessly. _

_"Cedes! Help me!" The poor child could barely speak with laughter. But Sam was relentless. _

_In the end it was Stacy that broke, unable to see her brother tortured for much longer. "It's love!" she cried, "When Mercedes bakes us cookies she always puts in a double portion of love. And that's what makes them super tasty!" _

_"Oh so that's what it is eh!" He cast his green eyes across to his now blushing girlfriend. "Well in that case I'm going to have to bake her some cookies of my own one day..." _

Mercedes stared at the little bag of white chocolate chip cookies. They were cut out into the shape of hearts and stars.

Many a night she and Sam had sat outside staring at the stars. Perfect entertainment that didn't cost a cent.

She sighed.

Sam Evans had just told her that he remembered.

And that he still loved her.

This was going to be far more difficult than she'd first thought...

* * *

"What's wrong Mercedes?"

They were sat in Breadstix on their first Friday night dinner date of the New Year.

She shrugged. "Nothing."

Shane struggled to hide his annoyance. She was starting to sound like a stuck record. "Look. If something is bugging you then you need to tell me."

"Seriously. It's nothing big. Don't worry about it."

"I am worrying about it. We're supposed to be having a serious conversation, and yet again you keep zoning out on me. We're supposed to be having a conversation about our future. What the hell is going on with you lately?"

That was an excellent question. Recently Mercedes had been getting quite tetchy for no reason. She had lost her focus and he felt that she wasn't putting as much into their relationship as she had at the beginning. Or rather, as much as she had before a certain blond ex of hers had made an appearance. Shane couldn't put his finger on it. He knew there was nothing going on between them, but despite this he still felt like he was losing her. And since Christmas it had been worse than ever. There were definite cracks in their relationship.

Staring at her face he could see it reflected the same annoyance that he was feeling.

She took a deep breath and decided she needed to come clean with him about something. "Ok. If you really insist on knowing... I'm feeling left out of all your planning. You're putting together all of these ideas and plans of our future together, but you're the one totally in control. You haven't once asked what I want to do or where I want to go. You're just assuming that I just want to blindly follow you like a little sheep as you live the life that you always dreamed of. Well, maybe I have dreams too."

"But we are following your dreams too. You'll have every opportunity to pursue your music career. How else can you get those Grammys before the babies start arriving."

She sighed. This was not what she meant at all. And all the baby talk had quickly gone from cute to creepy! He had no idea how overwhelming this was all being.

"Mercedes, I can't help fix things if you don't tell me what it is that I'm doing wrong. I thought we always had very open discussions."

"Shane I-" she was lost for words. She knew what she wanted to say but had no idea how she wanted to get it across. "We do have deep discussions. But sometimes I feel a little intimidated to speak up."

"Intimidated. I'm not intimidating to you!"

She cringed at his hurt expression. "Ok. So maybe intimidated was the wrong word. What I mean is that I'm scared I'll be a disappointment to you and your expectations."

"Oh baby!" His expression immediately softened and he reached across the kitchen table to pull her hand into his. "You'll never be a disappointment to me. You're beautiful and talented and amazing. Please don't put me in the same category as all those others who don't appreciate you. And believe me I _know_ how to keep a girl happy!"

She sighed. "It's just that you seem to want to be moving too fast. You've already planned when we're going to get engaged then when we'll get married. Then you know the area you want to live in. Hell you've even picked the car you want to drive!"

"I'm sorry if I come across that way. It's only because I'm excited to be with you. Besides, you can't say we're moving too fast coz me and you are moving a snail's pace!"

Her lips formed into a forced thin smile. They were having two different conversations. He was focused on the physical and she wasn't sure how long she was going to be able to keep this up.

* * *

It was the first time that Shane had been inside Mercedes' bedroom and he felt that it was a good omen for the progression of their relationship.

Her parents were out and he had finally persuaded her to let him come upstairs.

The room was just as he had imagined, with lots of purple, a queen sized bed and a decent sized flat screen TV. He ran his fingers over the box sets of DVDs stacked neatly next to the screen.

She sat down on her bed, tucking her legs beneath herself.

"More of your beloved sci-fi I'm guessing?" He brought one of the boxes over with him as her perched on the edge of the bed next to her.

She nodded. "I bought those when I was dating Sam. He introduced me to Doctor Who and we used to sit on the bed and watch hours of it."

Oh shit! What did I just go and say all that for?

Mercedes bit her bottom lip. Since the cookie incident she refused to even mention Sam's name in Shane's presence. And now she had just given away far too much information.

He pretended not to notice the smile that had crept onto her face. It was the faint smile of someone having a happy memory. And was also the expression that frequently accompanied her 'zoning out' moments.

But there was something he needed to be clear on.

"Sam came in your bedroom? On your bed?"

Loads of times! She fought back a wicked smile at his accidental double-entendre.

If only he knew the memories flooding her brain. Those heady summer days while her parents were at work...

_Mercedes pulled the sheet tightly around her naked body and pinned it down on either side using her elbows, lying as still as a statue. _

_Sam raised himself up on one elbow and looked down at her with an amused smile. "What are you trying to do Mercy?" _

_"I'm trying not to distract you. We came up here to watch Doctor Who, and so far we haven't even managed to switch on the TV!" _

_"And whose fault is that?" _

_"I didn't do anything!" And she genuinely felt it to be true. _

_"You shook that ass at me all the way up the stairs. How else was I supposed to react?" _

_"I did no such thing! It's just that you were staring at it really hard as I moved!" _

_"So what's all this then?" He indicated towards her now mummified body. _

_"This is to put a barrier between our skins so that we can focus on what we're watching." All she was watching right now was his firm chest. _

_"You do realize that all you've done is create a totally hot outline of yourself!" _

_She giggled. "The purpose of this was to turn you off, not turn you on!" _

_"Well in that case… you've got it all wrong!" _

_She squealed as he pushed the sheet off himself and quickly flipped to straddle her, pinning her down further underneath her section of the sheet. _

_"I can still turn you on, even thru the sheet!" Without breaking eye contact with her he began running his hands all over the outline of her shrouded body. At first she giggled and squirmed but it soon turned into a tremble when he reached some of her favorite places. Noticing the change in her, he moved his hands back up to her breasts, kneading, caressing and squeezing them while flicking the nipples with his thumb until they were like bullets raised through the sheet. _

_Then he leaned forward to ravage her mouth with his tongue. Eventually breaking the kiss for air he smiled down at her. "You lose!" _

_She was breathless from the kiss and confused as he suddenly leapt off her and off the bed. _

_But not so confused so as not to take the moment to enjoy the sight of his tight firm ass as he headed towards the bottom of the bed. _

_Once there he grinned and began tugging at the sheet. Now his evil plan had become apparent. _

_Before she had a chance to protest he had lifted the end of the sheet and had started to climb up towards her from underneath, pulling her down the bed by her ankles as she giggled and squirmed. _

_They didn't watch any Doctor Who that day… _

* * *

"Mercedes, are you blushing?"

She was cruelly torn away from her memories by an increasingly annoyed looking Shane. Being caught blushing only made her blush harder and avoid his eyes. But the damage was already done.

He looked hard at her with an expression that made her instantly feel uncomfortable. "I need to ask you something."

She knew what the question was going to be and she was mortified to be sitting on the scene of the multiple crimes while he asked it.

"Did you and Sam ever… you know…"

All she could do was look down at her hands. There was no way that she could meet his eyes, her lack of an answer being louder than a shout in terms of a reply. Then, as it dawned on him, Shane leaped up from the bed as if it was still stained by their sweat and fluids.

He was mad. Really mad. He had been with her for nearly six months and not got much past first base. And yet this Sam guy had been fast tracked to fourth during a short summer fling! Was it still happening behind his back? Was that why she was always smiling?

"Shane I-"

The expression on his face was one that she had never seen before. It scared her. She had never seen anyone get that angry that fast and it disturbed her. His words were even worse. "Oh shut up you fucking _slut_!"

Mercedes felt as though she had been slapped. Sam was her first and only and what they had shared was special. She did not regret it for a second. And yet with one word Shane had cheapened and demeaned her. He had no right to fuss about a relationship that was over before she even met him. He had no right to her body and what she did with it. And this rapid change in mood was a side to him that she had never seem before and did not like at all! Her rage was equal to, if not greater than his.

"Oh hell to the no! You did NOT just insult me like that!"

Shane just stared down at her with an expression of disgust.

"Get the HELL out of here!" She had been screaming but now her voice took on the quiet calm of controlled rage. "Go downstairs, collect all your shit and get out of my house!"

"Merced-"

"NOW!"

She stayed motionless, until she heard the front door slam and his car pull out of her driveway.

* * *

Mercedes spent the next day walking through school in a haze. She had seen Sam from a distance before first class and had ducked inside an empty classroom to avoid him. Too much was going on inside her head and she couldn't bear to think about it. Thankfully Shane was nowhere to be seen. She was sure that he was avoiding her as much as she was him.

Morning classes were a blur. She was there in body but not in mind. She had spent her entire math class with tears streaming down her face and not one person had noticed. Being seated on the back row helped, as did having a teacher who was strict with the eyes forward rule. It gave her plenty of time to think. Growing up with a daddy and three older brothers meant that they were all super protective of her. According to them, few men were trustworthy. And they emphasized that if a man disrespected you verbally, he's probably been disrespecting you in his head for time before that. And verbal disrespect is the first step towards other disrespect. The kind of disrespect that they would happily take it upon themselves to handle for their babygirl. They taught her her worth and what she should never accept from a man. Yet despite the warnings she had allowed herself to be with someone who clearly was below her worth.

She'd messed up. Yet again. Continuing a relationship out of pride and obligation instead of listening to her instincts and the advice of others.

This time last year she had never been kissed and was already dreading Valentine's day. Now she had two ex-boyfriends and nobody to confide in. How the hell had that happened?

"Mercedes, can I talk to you for a moment?"

She had no idea where he had appeared from but suddenly Shane was beside her. Clearly her lunchtime hiding spot near the parking lot wasn't quite as good as she thought it was.

"I have nothing to say to you. You went too far." Her tone was cold.

"I'm not asking you to talk. I'm just asking you to listen."

She sighed, wishing he would just leave her alone. "You have thirty seconds, then you need to get out of my sight forever!" If he couldn't understand why she was upset, he wasn't worth her time.

He sat down on the small wall next to her lifted her chin to look her straight in the eyes. "I just came to say it wasn't fair for me to call you what I did yesterday. I was angry and I wasn't thinking. Everyone makes mistakes. Guys like Sam tend to take advantage of innocent girls. I'm sure you regretted it after it happened but- I guess now I understand why you want to move so slow. Let's just get past this and move on with our relationship. I don't like to fight with you. I'll take you back and nobody needs to know."

How was that even supposed to be an apology? There was no 'sorry' and no regret. If it was humanly possible, Mercedes was even angrier than she was the day before. She had to make a conscious effort to breathe deeply before the diva in her started formulating her reply.

"Let's get a few things straight Shane Tinsley! For starters, there is no 'our relationship' anymore. It ended the second that hurtful word left your mouth and you cheapened me. I thought you were different but you're not. My papa brought me up to make sure I knew when a man genuinely respected me. There is no way I could ever be with somebody who thought that of me, even for a moment. I saw the expression and distaste in your eyes when you sad it and I'll never be able to forget that. Secondly, Sam didn't take advantage, we both wanted it as much as each other. We were making love. And not just once, several times. And it was amazing. Each time better than the last. Why? Because it was with feelings. And there were no regrets. Not even after he left. He was my first and that will always be my gift to him. Things were slow with you because much as I liked you as a friend, I just didn't feel for you that way. And the thought of you touching me- let's just say if I was as cheap as you make me out to be, you would have got lucky months ago. But I'm not that kind of girl. I wanted to be happy with you. You gave me no reason not to think well of you and I chose to ignore the warnings that I had about you from others. And as for you taking me back, I seem to remember it was me throwing _you _out, me dumping _you _and let me make it really clear, you can take back your fake half asses apology because I don't' ever want you back!"

"Mercedes-"

She held her hand up for him to stop talking. "No. I thought long and hard about if this is something I can forgive but I can't. To you it's just a word, to me it's a sign of things to come. Things I'm not prepared to accept from you."

His eyes narrowed and his fists clenched. "Oh now I see what you're really like. Pretending you're innocent when inside you're just trash. Trash and white trash clearly belong together!"

From nowhere her hand reached up and connected with his face in an almighty slap. "How DARE you!"

He grabbed her wrist, eyes flashing with rage. "If you hit me again I swear-"

"What? That you'll use your brute force against me like a coward?"

"You bitch-"

Mercedes had had enough. She wrestled her hand away from his grip and turned and fled, his voice still shouting insults behind her as she ran, tears streaming down her face.

He was still behind her calling her every name under the sun as she headed down the hallway and she turned the corner barely registering the small group walking towards her until she'd run directly into a familiar firm chest, instantly recognizing his scent and feeling familiar strong arms wrap around her.

From the side she heard an angry voice.

"What the FUCK is going on mama?"

If Mercedes had been in a better frame of mind she would have stood back and laughed at the variety of expressions on the faces of her boys. Puck's was full of rage and murder, Artie sort of looked like a pimp claiming his territory, Mike looked poised to break into Kung Fu. And Finn, well he just looked confused. "She's heading in the wrong direction to get to glee club!" he mouthed silently to Artie.

The spectacled boy simply kissed his teeth and cut his eyes at Finn's clear lack of ability to instantly assess and understand a situation.

Mercedes was upset. And nobody was ever going to upset their favorite girl. Especially not some lumbering Bigfoot friend of Azimo.

Sam's face registered all those expressions and more as he felt Mercedes tremble in his arms, lifting his fiery green eyes to see Shane hurling himself around the corner before noticing them and lurching to a stop.

Shane's lips curled up into a snarl. "What a surprise. Straight back into the arms of your little piece of white trash. You've probably been fucking all this time!" He fixed his eyes on Sam. "You can have her, trailer trash. I'm done with her. I don't want your sloppy seconds. I like my girls _fresh_!"

"What the fuck is wrong with you Shane?" Puck looked so angry even his Mohawk seemed to twitch.

Shane was too worked up to think through the consequences of his words and actions. "Always running back to your precious glee club Mercedes. You've probably spread your legs and fucked the whole lot of them! Including the cripple!"

Without a word, Brittany came and eased Mercedes out of Sam's arms, sandwiching her into a hug between her and Santana. She wiped some of the tears from her face. "Come on. You don't need to hear this," she said softly as they led her away from the rest of the group.

Shane's eyes followed them as he peeled his lips into a sick grin. "Or maybe I was wrong. Maybe scissoring with the girls is where it's at. I'd pay good money to watch, especially between that blond and that Asian one-"

Much to everyone's surprise it was Mike who leaped into action first with Puck a close second. Sam had been frozen to the spot with anger but quickly saw his opportunity, now that Mercedes was no longer in his arms.

Fists flew, fists connected and blood was drawn.

"Guys!" Artie jerked his head towards one of those conveniently empty classrooms which happened to be right behind Shane.

Finn finally got with the program and quickly opened the door while the other three boys, seeing what they were trying to do, drove a flailing Shane through the doorway. He was in such a rage that his punches were poorly aimed and he struck the air more than anything else. Mike's headlock was also a severe hindrance.

As the girls led Mercedes away from the fracas, Santana turned her head to the closed classroom door, being closely guarded by Artie.

"Britts, Tina, you've got this. I gotta get my Lima Heights on and represent the girls in this bash!"

None of them even bothered trying to stop her, and Artie simply rolled out of the way with a smile as she made her way to the door

Quinn dropped her hairbrush into the sink when she saw the state of her friend being brought into the bathroom.

"Cedie!" she cried, "What happened?"

"Oh wow, you just missed it all kick off outside!" said Tina. "Shane basically insulted Mercedes, then Sam, then the entire glee club. The boys and Santana are all in one of the classrooms beating his ass as we speak."

The thought of that happening forced a watery smile onto Mercedes' face and Quinn pulled her into an embrace of their own while Brittany grabbed tissues.

"Tell us what's going on."

Mercedes sniffed and dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. Now that the anger had passed, she felt drained. "Shane and I broke up."

"How come? I thought you guys were solid?"

"He called me a slut for having been with Sa-" she quickly stopped herself, realizing that it was Quinn that she was talking to.

"It's OK Cedie. I'm over Sam and I know that he still loves you. There's nothing to feel funny over."

"How do you know he still loves me? Or even that he loved me in the first place?"

Quinn looked nervously at her hands before moving her eyes to Tina and Brittany. "Guys, I've got this. You should go and make sure that your other halves are okay."

After they had left Quinn continued. "I did something I wasn't proud of. When Sam first came back I admit that I tried to see if there were any of the old feelings still there. I guess I was clutching at straws to see if I could prove to Shelby that if I was in a relationship then I would be mature enough to have a bigger part in Beth's life. But he put me straight there and then. He told me that he loved you, he wanted you back and he would fight for you if necessary."

Mercedes nodded. "He said something along those lines to me too. It must've really hurt him to see me with Shane after the way that we'd left things."

"Well, he knows all about rebounding so he can't exactly blame you. Besides, I see the way he still looks at you. It's obvious that he's crazy over you and he's just waiting for his chance."

"But I've messed things up!"

"Don't think like that. Sam is as crazy about you as ever. Now, much as I'm enjoying this girly chat, your man is outside fighting for you. Go get your man!"

Mercedes nodded, hugged her friend one last time, smoothed her hair and top then headed out the door.

It was all over so quickly and now the room was quiet. The others had gone to get cleaned up and head to class before the late bell rang.

Sam looked Shane Tinsley. The rage had left him and now all he was left with was a combination of pity and disgust. Staring at the beached whale of a football player caused his stomach started to turn. He hated himself for reacting so violently, but he hated Shane more. As well as being cockblocker extraordinaire, he had hurt and insulted him, his friends, and most importantly the woman that he loved. And nobody does that without paying the price.

Refusing to help the fallen rival to his feet, he turned and headed to the door. He passed what looked like half a tooth on the floor and smiled to himself. How ironic would it be if Shane had to go to Mercedes' father in order to get his teeth repaired?

As it closed behind him he saw Mercedes approaching. She looked beautiful as ever but it was obvious from her eyes that she'd been crying. Just seeing her like that made him want to head back into the room to dish out some more, but he was better than that.

"Hey Mercy."

"Hey." Suddenly shy. What was all that about?

"Look Sam, we need to talk in private-"

He nodded, taking both of her hands in his. "Where shall we go?"

Her eyes scanned the deserted hallway before resting on the janitor's closet.

For the second time in as many minutes he chuckled to himself at the irony of the way things had turned out. He would be lying if he was to say he hadn't fantasized about him and Mercy in the janitor's closet, but this wasn't quite the scenario he'd pictured in his mind.

She switched on the light and he locked the door behind them.

"Where's everyone gone?" Again with the shyness. He knew for a fact that Mercedes Jones wasn't shy in certain situations.

"To Glee club. Mr Schue will be the perfect alibi providing they don't get there too late."

"Are you going?"

He shook his head.

"Why not?"

"This is the first chance I've had to talk to you properly without that oaf standing over you since I got back. Some things are more important than a few songs."

She nodded. "Will he say anything to anyone?" She couldn't bring herself to use his name "I couldn't bear it if anyone got suspended or Puck went back to juvie over this!"

Sam shook his head. "If it was just us boys then it could have been a risk, but Santana and the razorblades is 100% true. He's already learned the hard way that girl knows how to make strategic cuts, and if he ever opens his mouth about this he'll be getting a free castration with her bluntest blade!"

Mercedes laughed. "Maybe she's missed her vocation. She should train to be a surgeon or something."

"Damn right!"

They both continued to smile, falling silent as they stared deeply into each other's eyes. Why had she resisted the inevitable for so long?

"Thank you." Mercedes broke the silence with a single word.

"For what?" He stepped closer.

"For everything." She took his right hand in hers, taking in the grazed knuckles before bringing them up to her lips. "For being so patient. For fighting for me... For still wanting me... For still loving me... And for baking me cookies..."

He grinned. "White chocolate cookies."

She murmured as he leaned forward and his slightly bruised lips found hers. "Super tasty white chocolate."

He deepened the kiss. "I know how much you love white chocolate…"

He swung her around, backing her against the wall. She squealed, her hands flying into his hair, grabbing it by the fistful as she pulled his head and delicious mouth down closer to hers before eventually having to come up for breath.

"You know, giving me those cookies really wasn't fair!"

His mouth traced a line along her jaw. "And right underneath his nose too! I was proud of that one. I told you I would fight. But at no point did I say I'd fight clean."

"Oh you're dirty alright Samuel Evans!"

He chuckled as his lips found hers again and his hands travelled south to his favorite curves. The ones he had missed for so long.

"So what did you do or say to make him so mad?"

She groaned, not wanting to talk about him when she was busy 'getting her mack on'.

"Hmmmmmm… Mercy, I did ask you a question…"

Oh yes, they were supposed to be having a conversation weren't they…

She sighed. "I accidentally let slip about our summer of sitting on my bed watching Dr Who. He got mad because he'd never even made it into my room, then it dawned on him just what we'd really spent the summer doing on that bed."

Sam chuckled and pressed his hips even closer, completely pinning her against the wall. "On your bed… in your bed… against your bed… on that little rug next to your bed…" Each was punctuated with a kiss or a nibble or a suck on her neck and throat.

Mercedes felt her knees weaken. "You forgot that time on the stairs because we never actually made it to the bed…"

This time it was Sam's turn to groan. "And now maybe the janitor's closet."

"Maybe indeed…"


	4. Glory Of Love

**_The Glory of Love: (Title again based on the song by Chicago.) 2_****_nd_****_ short fic written in November 2011 in response to Sam's return hallway scene. This was originally a 4 'drabble' style chapter fic in response to review promts for Nasty!Shane_**

* * *

The bell rang and Mercedes made her way down the stairs to her next class.

Unbeknown to her Sam is stood waiting imptatiently at the bottom. One of the first things he did on his return was find out her schedule. Everywhere she goes, he'd be waiting. He planned to do everything in his power to force her to not forget what they'd shared. Because what they'd shared was beyond special.

He broke into a smile when he finally saw her making her descent, and as she drew level with him, stepping down from the bottom step he grabbed the hand which had subconsciously swung out towards him, falling into a walking pace that matched hers.

_'This summer is ours. I want to be with you with no distractions. But I've been thinking about when we go back to school. I don't know if I could take staying quiet while some guy checks you out in the hallway. I want it to be you that I kiss at the sidelines whenever we win a game. I want it to be you that I sit holding hands with at lunch. And it's you that I want to sneak into the janitor's closet with. _

_I want us to walk through the halls proudly hand in hand with our heads held high and nothing to be ashamed of..._

Mercedes was momentarily lost in the memory before rapidly returning to her senses.

"What are you doing?" She hadn't meant for her words to come out that harsh but she couldn't take it back.

"Holding your hand."

_Oh my god! So he is!_

She quickly let go of him, ashamed that she'd already absently taken several steps with him.

"DON'T!" She needed to be very clear on this. People might have seen them. And it might get back to Shane. "Sam, look I-"

"Hey I heard about your boyfriend…"

"Then you heard that he's built like a bulldozer!" Despite the attitude in her voice, the way he was staring at her way too intently caused that familiar fluttery feeling to build in her stomach.

He stopped walking and she turned to face him, hand raised to stop him from saying another word, his gorgeous face already threatening to be too much for her.

Although his voice was all confidence and swagger, Sam suddenly found himself having to shove his hands into his pockets to help him resist the urge to reach out and touch her.

She sighed, struggling to regain her composure and subconsciously clutches her purple folder to her chest defensively. "We had a summer fling."

"It was more than that!" Again with the intense stare.

_Of course it was! _It was the summer that he had made her a woman. She paused, eyes glazing slightly as she flashed back to summer moments of intense passion, pleasure and promises. Of kisses and nibbles, bites and moans, gasps and cries which had become screams. Of intense heat and slick sweaty bodies. Of rock hard abs and soft breasts, powerful thighs and hard-

She forced herself back to reality.

"I will always have a special place in my heart for you." The words were lame. She didn't believe them and knew that she didn't look or sound in the least bit convincing. Sam went to speak but decided to let her finish. "But I've moved on and you've got to do the same!" _Oh the lies we weave..._ Sam rocked on the balls of his feet, silently rejoicing because he _knew_ she is lying. And because this, above all, confirmed that she is still his. He'd done his homework and her new boyfriend was shitty as hell.

Mercedes used the brief pause to turn her back and start walking away, anxious that Shane might see their little dialogue and not wanting Sam to get hurt by him.

Undeterred, Sam paused, biting his bottom lip before calling after her down the hall. "I don't care how big or bad your boyfriend is!" The words force her to break out into a smile before she even gets to turn the corner. That was the return of the Sam that she knew and loved. The one who was so passionate and romantic he'd forget reality. The Sam who believed so strongly in love that he would do anything in his power to make it happen. "I'm going to fight to get you back!"

She didn't turn her head, she was sure that even from a distance he would have been able the tell that her smile had broadened and she clutched the folder even closer to her chest, silently wishing it was somebody else.

_I was always yours Sam._

A small smile played on Sam's lips, confident in the knowledge that she'd spend the rest of the day knowing that he knows that she was lying.

It was the confirmation he needed. He never really doubted it, but now he finally knew for sure she still wanted him.

It's was only a little matter of time and planning…

* * *

Weeks had passed but Sam didn't have anything concrete to tell Mercedes to convince her to leave her no good boyfriend until an opportunity unexpectedly presented itself when he wasn't even looking for it. Shane and Azimo's laughter rang out through the changing rooms. It was a filthy laugh. Something made Sam stay back where he could see and hear them, but couldn't be seen himself.

"Azi- you are the MAN!"

"Yeah. As soon as I saw that fine piece of ass I knew I had to tap 'dat!"

"And speaking of tapping it…" Shane's voice lowered into a conspiratorial tone, "Mercedes' parents are going to be away this weekend so we can finally get our _boom boom_ on!"

"About fucking time!"

"Well you know these ebony 'BBW's have the sweetest pussies. It'll be worth my investment in time and Breadstix shrimp baskets!"

"Damn right! But don't forget watch the game on Sunday!"

"Oh I won't. She's got that fucking massive HD TV in her lounge. I was thinking if I bend her over just right so her weave doesn't block the screen then I can do both at once! Who says men can't multitask!"

Shane was holding an imaginary pair of hips in front of him while thrusting his own back and forth and moaning "Oh yeah baby… take it… take it deep…"

Sam had heard enough. "You shouldn't talk about her like that!" Suddenly fearless he stepped out into view.

Shane stared down at the blond, who was clutching tightly onto his swim kit, as if needing to find something useful to do with his hands and laughed straight into his face. "Well look who it is! Santana always said you had lips like a fish. Figures you'd end up on the swim team!" He turned to Azimo and his friend laughed and clapped him on the shoulder.

Sam sighed. When he'd said he would fight for Mercedes, he hadn't meant it in a literal sense, knowing that suspension would do nothing to endear him to either her or her family. But Shane had another thing coming if he didn't think that he would at least fight for her honor.

Shane turned and placed a hand on Sam's shoulder in a mock friendly manner. "You know, as much as I shouldn't like you for the way that you constantly look at _my _woman, I can't help but be thankful to the little guy who popped her cherry and stretched her a little so that she's now ready to take on a _real man!"_

Azimo snapped his hand and threw his head back laughing. "That was _harsh_ dude!"

Sam was at boiling point. His green eyes were glinting with anger, yet the voice of common sense told him to step away. There were better ways to fight this than with fists. He shrugged Shane's hand off his shoulder and took a step back, his eyes locked onto his rival. _Why could Mercedes not see what he was really like?_

"Yeah that's right. You back off and get the fuck out of here!"

Turning to leave, he resolved once and for all to find Mercedes and make her see sense before it was too late.

"And don't even bother trying to find and follow my girl around school like a love-sick puppy on Monday like you always do." Shane had a sick smile plastered on his face "Newsflash just in. _She won't be here! _I'm gonna do her so good at the weekend that she still won't be able to walk on Monday!"

And that was it.

The final straw that caused Sam to drop his bag, turn and roar as he launched himself full throttle at Shane, no longer caring that he was outsized and outnumbered.

The element of surprise worked in his favor and he was able to connect a right hook to Shane's eye before the tables turned. For such a large guy Shane was fast and his fist connected with Sam's mouth, splitting his lip and knocking him hard against the wall.

Azimo stepped forward, ready to kick him as he slid down the wall when a voice caused all movement to stop.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN HERE!"

Coach Bieste had appeared from nowhere and within seconds had grabbed both assailants by the back of the neck.

Sam couldn't have asked for better timing, not just because he had been about to have the living shit beaten out of him, but because from Coach's line of vision, it was two guys beating on a smaller boy. And there was no way that they were going to admit to what had really just gone down.

"Evans, go see the nurse and get something for your face. I'll sort this!"

Sam nodded, quickly getting up and grabbing his abandoned kit on the way out.

Forget the nurse, he had to find Mercedes!

It took him ages to locate her.

He ended up finding her in the first place that he had looked, but on the second time around. She was now by her locker in the deserted hallway.

Hearing his steps approach she slammed the door shut before turning to face him.

Her breath caught in her chest as she caught sight of his face. It was then that he remembered the blow from Shane and the split lip. In the rush to find her he had forgotten all about the pain. And now he remembered that he must have looked like one hell of a mess.

Her hand had instinctively gone up to his face. "What the hell happened? Please tell me it wasn't Shane…"

"Mercy you need to listen to me-"

"Sam! I warned you that my man is built like a bulldozer! What the hell made you think you could take him on? You're an idiot! You know that? _A stupid idiot_!"

The words were harsh but her tone wasn't. Somewhere in all of that she had pulled out a Kleenex and was dabbing his lip with it. He wanted to moan at the feel of the touch of her skin on his face as she tenderly brushed a stray strand of his hair behind his ear. There was no way on earth he was going to allow Shane to put his filthy hands on her.

He looked into her eyes and saw nothing but tender concern. She wanted to be mad at him but couldn't find it in her heart. It was as if deep down she knew he would end up pulling something like this and trying to force her hand.

"Shane isn't who he wants you to believe he is." Sam said softly.

She closed her eyes and sighed. "Sam, he's my boyfriend. He supported me when you weren't here. He helped me to stand up for myself and my voice. I can't just dump him because you're back on the scene. You know I still care about you but I can't do it this way! It's not who I am!"

"He might say supportive things to your face but when you're not there his attitude is very different!" There was no mistaking the bitterness in his voice.

This caught her curiosity. "Wh-what do you mean?"

Sam was loathe to repeat the things that he had just heard. "Put it this way, he's just been in the changing room with Azimo bragging and gesturing what he'll be doing with you all weekend while your parents are away. And let's just say it didn't look like studying!"

She froze at his words before withdrawing her hand and shaking her head slowly. "He wouldn't. You're just saying this to mess with my head."

"Think about it. Think about the way Azimo talks about girls."

"Any you just happened to be there when it all happened!"

"By some stroke of luck or extreme misfortune yes I was!"

She stared at him so hard that it made him feel uncomfortable and he started to shift on his feet.

"You have to believe me Mercy! I would never do anything to hurt you! I'm just trying to stop you from getting hurt."

"I'm not sure what your motives are!"

"My motive is nothing but your happiness! Look, if I can't love you like I did in the summer, then I will love you from a distance. I'll be your guardian angel protecting you from harm just so that you can be happy. Because I wouldn't be able to bear you feeling any other way."

"Sam! Stop saying stuff like that!"

"Yeah Evans. Stop trying to hit on _my_ girl." Shane had appeared from nowhere and clamped a firm hand on Mercedes' forearm. "Baby we need to talk!" He pulled her towards an empty classroom and she reluctantly followed, her eyes not breaking from Sam's.

"Just think about what I said Mercy!" He called after her, holding his ground, glaring at Shane's hand tightly gripping her wrist like he owned her. "I'll be right here waiting!"

Shane pulled the door shut behind Mercedes and sat on one of the tables. "Look Mercy, I've come to –"

She rapidly spun to face him. "Who says you can call me Mercy?" Her eyes were flashing with anger.

"But- but _he_ just did-"

"And _he_ can. Because I say he can. But _you_ have no right!"

The injustice of her words didn't pass him by but he wisely opted not to push the issue.

"Okay Mercedes. Look, I've come to apologize. I didn't mean for things to get out of hand like that. It's just that that guy is always up in our faces. Trying to break you down. And today was the final straw was when he started saying stuff about you."

"What kind of stuff?"

"Stuff about what went down in the summer." She folded her arms against her ample chest and she glared at him when his focus shifted to it.

"What kind of stuff?"

"I don't know. Just some stupid gloating shit-"

"So you hit him over something that he said, but you don't even know _what it was_ that he said?"

Shane started to squirm uncomfortably, knowing he should have got his story straight on the way over. "Look, he hit me first. Here! Right on the eye!" He showed her the small cut above his eye and the way the whole area was rapidly swelling.

She struggled to feel the same sympathy for him that she had for Sam moments before and gave up trying. "That's not how he tells it!"

"He's lying!"

"Shane! Don't take me for a fool. Sam would never hit someone, let alone someone of your size, without a_ really really_ good reason. And that _really really_ good reason would be that he was defending someone else. So now let me tell _you_ something." She stepped forward towards him and he instinctively took a step back. It was obvious that she mad and he didn't like what that could possibly mean for him. "What you're telling me sounds like a steaming pile of shit! I only told _one_ person that my parents are away this weekend._ ONE! _And that person was you! So if Sam suddenly knows about it, that can only be because you told him. And as you're not exactly the best of friends, the only way that you would be speaking to him is if you were gloating over something! He was too much of a gentleman to repeat the conversation but I know enough about Azimo to work out what the contents of your _boytalk_ would have been!" Each sentence was punctuated by an angry jam in his chest with her finger.

She put her head in her hands and took a step back away from him, breathing deeply to control her rage.

He leaned forward and grabbed her again.

"DON'T YOU DARE LAY A HAND ON ME!" Her voice was louder that he had ever heard it and before the sentence was even complete Sam came flying through the door looking ready for another fight, prompting Shane to let her go.

"Is everything alright Mercy?" Sam's eyes are intent on her.

Mercedes nods. "We're done here."

Shane started to leap forward from where he was sitting before thinking better of it, more fearful of being hit by Mercedes than Sam.

Neither boy missed the double meaning of her words. Sam's expression contained hope while Shane was crushed.

In a last ditch attempt, Shane's voice softened to an almost childlike tone. "Er… Mercedes, when you say we're done here…"

If looks could kill, the one she shot him would have left nothing for a burial. "Move your brain back up to your head and figure it out!"

"But I got suspended for you..." His voice faded into a pathetic whine.

She pulled her bag tight over her shoulder and made her way to the door and to Sam, leaving Shane to wonder at his own ignorance.

As they walked together down the hall, she grabs his hand prompting Sam to ask "Where are we going?"

She looks up at him. "To the girl's bathroom."

"Why there?"

"So I can put something cold on your bruise."

It sounded like a good plan to him. "But what if someone catches us?"

"They can go use the ones on another floor. If I want to fix my boyfriend's face and maybe kiss his poor lip better then I'm not going to let anybody get in my way!"

There was a lot in that sentence that Sam liked hearing. "Boyfriend?"

"If you'll still have me!"

"And kiss?"

"If you'll still let me!"

"Well in that case, I don't see why we should have to wait until we get to the bathroom…"


	5. Off Campus Lunch

**Off Campus Lunch: O****_neshot written in Feb 2012 based on that concluding hallway scene from 'The Spanish Teacher' episode._** **_This was written to appease my guilt over continually bashing Shane in my fics (How Did This Happen was also written in the same month so those who read that will really know where I'm coming from on this). Lots of the comments about LaMarcus Tinker were personal so I wanted to right some wrongs. (And fix the show while I was at it!) _**

**_Surprisingly Lovely!Shane_**

* * *

Shane watched as Mercedes stepped out of the music room and headed down the hall. She had no idea that he was only a couple of paces behind her, having hoped to reach her before she left the room. He was going to call after her but something made him drop back and stay quiet. Within seconds he knew the reason why.

Even from behind, he could see from her cheeks that she was smiling. One of those big broad smiles that made her eyes sparkle. Only the smile wasn't for him. And then it suddenly dawned on him. It was as if the whole universe slid into place.

Sam Evans was walking down the hall towards them. Shane didn't doubt that the smile on his face was the mirror image of the one that he couldn't quite see on Mercedes. Even for a guy, it was pretty damn… _radiant!_

The smile vanished from Sam's face pretty quickly when he finally spotted Shane who had decided that this time he was going to stop anything happening before it began. "There you are baby! Are you ready?" He greeted his girl as if he had only just arrived. She rapidly turned her head from Sam to look at him. Her smile had dropped the second she had heard his voice and he would never forget the expression on her face for the split second it took for her to put on another one.

It was her Shane smile. He'd seen enough to know that it was different to her Sam smile. Sure it was still big and bright. But it reached nowhere near her eyes.

She looked up at him quizzically, almost as if she wasn't sure who he was or why he was there.

"For lunch!" Surely she hadn't forgotten? She'd called him late last night to arrange it herself. He pointed outside with his thumb. "We're going off campus, right?"

He pretended that he didn't see the look of disappointment on Sam's face.

He pretended that he didn't see the look of disappointment on Mercedes' face.

He chose to be the bigger man.

"Hey Sam!" He watched as the boy who had broken his girl's heart over the summer narrowed his lips and nodded in acknowledgement of the greeting.

The worst part of it all was Mercedes' eyes. They were still wide and still trained on Sam, trying to wordlessly communicate with him even after he had taken her hand and turned to leave.

And she seemed to lace her fingers between his tighter than usual.

He wanted to be angry. He wanted to be mad at Sam. But deep down he knew.

He pretended that he didn't notice Mercedes turn round one last time towards Sam as they were walking away.

He knew why Mercedes had asked to meet him for lunch.

He knew why lunch was going to be off campus.

He knew what it was that he hadn't given her the chance to tell Sam.

The question was, would he give her the chance to say it or would he give her the easy way out?

The silence in the car on the way to the burger joint would have been oppressive if they hadn't both been so lost in their thoughts.

Shane turned his head slightly as he drove so that he could look at her.

Mercedes Jones was beautiful. And he had pinched himself every day wondering what the hell it was that she was doing with him in the first place. Shane Tinsley had never fitted in. He'd always been too tall, too heavy and stood out too much. The other kids had been scared of him and labeled him as a bully based purely on appearance. But he wasn't a bully. Quite the opposite actually. He liked art and poetry and beautiful things.

Shane had spent his life on the sidelines, always on the outside looking in. People assuming he was one thing when he was really another. But they never actually took the time to find that out. He took lots of abuse for being different when all he really wanted was friends. And to fit in. That's how he had gotten into sports. People were more accepting when they knew that you had a talent that was useful to them.

And girls… They never liked him. He was too big and clumsy around them. He wasn't the greatest looking guy in the world but surely he wasn't the ugliest either. Why shouldn't he be the guy to get the girl, just for once. But most never saw beyond his moustache. In all the time he had had it, aside from Mercedes, only _one_ other person actually thought to ask him why it was there. That was Becky. And she'd just come out and asked him in that innocent honest way that she had. So he'd told her. His father had died when he was small and he only had a couple of pictures of him. But in each picture he had the moustache. The older he got, the more he grew to look like his dad, so he grew the same moustache too. It was just a way of keeping his father's memory alive.

Nobody knew how much it hurt him when they insulted it. As usual they didn't know or care enough him to even consider the fact that it may have some significance.

Mercedes had been great to him when he had first moved to Lima. They'd met at church where he had been utterly mesmerized by her voice. They bonded that same afternoon at a church event where they had been the youngest in attendance by at least 20 years.

Being strangers forced into company with each other gave them the freedom to open up about their lives. To speak about people and situations that were totally unknown to each other. Shane told her about his complicated family life and how he had now come to be living with his aunt. The situation wasn't ideal but his mom had been through a lot and he had to put on a brave face for her. She told him all about a boy that she had been in a secret relationship with called Sam and how her heart was broken over him but she was doing her best to keep a brave face too.

As they talked they discovered that they had more and more in common. They were both part of the black 'minority' in their schools. They had both been overlooked and had assumptions made about them about their size which had hurt, even though they would always just put a brave face on it.

The fact that they were both people who had been 'overlooked' was their strongest bond. And with Mercedes' Glee friends being busy with their own lives and relationships, the two of them had spent increasing amounts of time together over the summer.

They had almost fallen into dating each other, the line between them just being friends and becoming something more being pretty blurry at the beginning. It was the first time that Shane had ever dated anyone. Girls never normally went for him, so to be spending time with someone as gorgeous as Mercedes totally blew his mind. He had seen pictures of her ex. He knew that he was everything that Sam wasn't and reckoned that it was probably a good thing.

He had tried so hard to be supporting of her. When her friends from Glee club let her down yet again, as was their recurring theme, he always made sure that he was available and there to pick up the pieces. He watched her go from the heartbroken little girl to the confident young woman that he always knew she would become.

The pressures of football became greater and greater but he still did his best not to keep letting Mercedes down.

And it had all been going so well until Sam had returned. Shane had been mid conversation with Mercedes in the hallway when he had first noticed her attention drift. His heart had immediately sunk when he followed where her eyes had drifted. There was no mistaking Sam Evans, all smiles, green eyes shining brightly as he was welcomed by students at every turn. She had looked shocked, and sad and… something else too.

He watched as she blinked and a single tear rolled down her cheek. He hated seeing her cry. He had watched her cry over that boy so many times. He never wanted to be the one to make her cry. He wrapped his arm securely around her and led her away from the scene.

He could have handled it. He could have continued to work on her fragile heart, but from the moment he had heard about Sam's declaration in the hallway he knew he was running on borrowed time. Sam had been back less than a day. How the hell had he known that her boyfriend was 'big and bad'? This was what he'd spent his whole life being up against. Those assumptions that he was always going to behave a certain way.

And worse still, he publicly wanted her. Being in a secret relationship had always made her feel that although they were good together, Sam hadn't wanted the world to know about them. But now he did. And he was prepared to shout it whoever was ready, or even not ready, to hear.

There was no way that he would be able to compete with Sam Evans. Sam was good looking, popular, everything that he wasn't. Suddenly the thought of being Sam's polar opposite was now no longer appealing. He was losing her and he knew it.

She had tried to reassure him. She was his. She was committed. She wasn't like the other girls.

And she wasn't.

He knew that she wasn't lying about that.

But that didn't mean she wasn't still in love with Sam.

She just didn't know it yet.

He saw the way she looked at Sam.

He saw the way she smiled at Sam.

He could tell when she was with him but thinking of Sam.

She couldn't control the way that her eyes lit up whenever he was in the room. Half the time she didn't even realize it was happening. But he did. He'd spent a lifetime on the outside looking in, and was pretty damn good at observing people.

The week her Glee club had been doing Michael Jackson songs things had eventually come to their head. He had taken one look at her face and known something was up. She'd come straight from the auditorium to confess.

She and Sam had sung a duet and they had kissed.

That was the moment that his world in Lima had ended.

She had said that she was confused and that she didn't want to break up with him.

But there was already a spear in the heart of their relationship.

Shane looked up at her now as she pushed her fries around her plate. Did he wait for her to speak or should he pre-empt her?

She sniffed and he wordlessly handed her a paper napkin.

This was total torture. He was just going to have to-

"Shane-"

He breathed a sigh of relief. "I know baby. I had you on loan for a little while, but you were always Sam's."

She nodded, finally meeting his eyes. "I didn't mean to play you. He was never supposed to come back. I was never supposed to feel like this. And I was never supposed to make you feel like this."

"I won't lie to you Mercedes. This does hurt. But I've had longer than you think to get used to it." He reached across the table and took her hands in his. "I'll be honest with you. I don't know what you see in this Sam guy. But the heart wants what the heart wants and that clearly isn't me."

"Shane! I-"

"Shhhh… It's okay. I've been rehearsing this moment for weeks. You were always way out of my league anyway. I was selfish in this too. I saw this moment from the moment that boy stepped back into the school, but I held on to you a little longer than I should have."

"But I did try-"

"I know. And I respect you for that. You're honest and you wanted to be true to me. You wanted to do the right thing by me. But by doing what you think is right you're breaking three hearts. This way you're only breaking one. And it's one that already had a chance to start the healing process."

Mercedes reached over and put her other hand over their entwined fingers.

"Why are you so amazing Shane? I was expecting you to go crazy!"

He raised his eyebrow. "Really? After all these months you think I'd be like that?"

She smiled and shook her head. "No. I guess not. That's why I was drawn to you I suppose. You're my little port of calm in the drama that is my life."

"A guy can only try baby!"

They sat in comfortable silence for a moment before Shane asked the question he had been dying to ask for weeks. "So what do you see in him? And please don't say it's the green eyes. Chicks always seem to dig green eyes!"

She laughed. "It was never about his looks. We have a connection. We understand each other. It was a lot like me and you in the beginning. But where you like poetry and beauty, he likes sci-fi and geeky things. And the thing is, so do I. For years he did his impressions and everyone laughed because they thought they were stupid. But I love his impressions. They make me smile. I wish I could do impressions. Besides, he really _knows _me."

He never expected that the hardest part of this would be seeing the way her face lit up when she started talking about Sam "I know you too baby!"

"That's true. But on a different level. You know I like sci-fi but who is my favorite out of the X-Men? Which is the only episode of Buffy that I refuse to watch? Which is the one series of books I hate more than Twilight? We share a wavelength, Sam and I, and it's like an invisible tether that draws us back however much we try and fight it."

He sighed. "Okay. I won't pretend to understand but I accept that."

"But Shane. You are a wonderful boyfriend. This isn't personal about you. I hope you know that?"

"I do. It doesn't make things any easier but I do know."

Mercedes leaned forward. "Can I ask you a favor? Please don't be too hard on Sam. He didn't mean any of this to happen either. He's been cheated on before and he knows what the heartbreak is like."

Shane shrugged. "Sure. Just don't expect me to like him."

"You won't be able to help yourself after a while!" she smiled.

"Okay so I have a favor to ask of you too. Can you guys just, you know, just not rub my face in it? If you know what I mean?"

"Of course. We'll be discreet. I've already been labeled as a two-timing ho by Miss Pilsbury. We're not going to be chasing each other down the halls any time soon."

"I'm glad to hear that."

"You know I do genuinely want you to be happy. One day, some girl is going to be totally crazy about you and you'll be so happy that you didn't force us to work and miss out on that fantastic opportunity."

"Yeah. Never gonna happen!" He sank back into his seat dejectedly.

"I'm serious. You never know what might be just around the corner for you!"

"Nothing. This is it! I'm done with girls!"

"No! Don't say that!" She smiled at him with the most genuine smile he had seen from her in a long time. "I really hope we can still be friends Shane. I'm not saying that for the sake of it, I do mean it."

"I know. And I do too. We're in the same church after all. It would be weird and unchristian if we couldn't be."

"Exactly! And speaking of church, are you coming to the fundraiser on Saturday?"

"Of course." He watched as Mercedes smiled mischeviously. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh. It's just that I happen to know that there will be a third person under forty there. Her name is Naomi, she goes to the local school and is very tall and very shy…"

"Mercedes Jones! Are you trying to set me up already?"

Her grin widened. "Shane Tinsley! Just because we're not together anymore, doesn't mean we still can't be good for each other!"...

* * *

Sam stood in the auditorium staring at his phone. Mercedes had texted him to meet her there but there was no sign of her. And more importantly, none of the band were there either so he doubted she was going to sing him a song.

After she left with Shane at lunchtime, he'd decided that he was going to give up. He'd clearly read the signals wrong. She wasn't as into him as he had hoped and one day he would eventually heal. He knew it was a lie but kept telling himself that anyway. He was not too young to know that he was still very much in love with Mercedes. He just couldn't understand why it was so hard for her to see it.

He was already heading towards the door to leave when she blustered in, her face flushed and her eyes shiny.

"I'm so sorry I'm late Sam!"

He wanted to be mad at her but his reflexes betrayed him and there was a smile on his face before he could think it through properly.

"Sam. I'm sorry about earlier. I did want to speak with you when our time was up." She swept her arm towards the multitude of seats. "Why don't you sit down?"

"I'd rather stand actually." He didn't know where this conversation was going and he wanted to make it as easy for himself as possible to bolt out of there if necessary. "So what is it that you want to say to me?"

"Sam – this week has been one of the worst of my life. To not be able to speak with you broke my heart all over again. Most of what we did over the summer was just sit and talk. To have that taken from my life a second time was just too much."

"But you-"

"Sam! Please… just let me finish."

"Sorry." He nodded for her to continue.

"Not talking meant that I had plenty of time for thinking. I thought a lot about you and about Shane and how I feel about both of you. Because believe it or not I do care for both of you!"

She watched as Sam pursed his lips, stiffened and folded his arms around himself. He exhaled loudly but this time he stayed silent and allowed her to continue to speak.

"I'm serious when I say that Sam. Shane's not who people think he is. They just look at him and see this guy who is built like a bulldozer. But inside he is the softest person with the biggest heart. People take him at face value and never get to know the true person inside. But the person inside him is beautiful. And he has been nothing but amazing to me. He held me while I cried over you in the summer and he brought the smile back to my face just by being himself and being sincere. He knew what you said in the hallway about fighting for me and he could have gone all Lima Heights on you but he didn't. He simply said 'let the best man win'."

Sam stared down at the ground. He didn't like the direction that this speech was going in and had to bite his lip to keep from interrupting.

"But he's not stupid Sam. He sees how I smile whenever I see you in the halls and in Glee. And he sees how you pursue me even when you pretend that you're not. But he never once put pressure on me. Never once got angry."

"But you kissed me!"

"I know. I told him that too!"

"You _told _him?" Sam was incredulous. "I'm damn lucky I don't have any broken bones!"

Mercedes smiled and shook her head. "See! That's exactly what I mean about people misreading Shane. He was actually the one who suggested we go to Miss Pilsbury for some counseling. To help me work out what I feel for you and what I feel for him."

"And did it?" There was a glimmer of hope back in Sam's eyes.

She looked down at the ground. "Yes it did. Shane is an amazing guy. He's the most perfect boyfriend and he's crazy about me."

"And so am I!"

She shot him the 'let me finish' look again and he quickly shut up. "So like I said, I thought long and hard about what Miss Pilsbury said-"

"You are _not_ a two-timing ho Mercedes!"

"SAM! I'm just going to turn round and leave if you don't let me finish. I swear it would have been better if you still weren't allowed to speak to me. Then at least it would be able to get through what I need to say!"

Sam took a deep breath and muttered to himself, rocking on the back of his heels and suddenly finding the floor really interesting.

"What she said about us not talking actually made a lot of sense. For a start, it gave me a lot of space, just to do some thinking. And it made me realize how miserable I was with you being here but not being here."

He looked up and saw her eyes were welling up but before he got too excited he continued to let her speak.

"And then I thought about how this would be if it was Shane that I wasn't able to speak with for a week and the idea of that didn't quite shatter my universe in quite the same way."

"Not speaking to me shattered your universe?"

She grinned and whacked his arm playfully. "Quit mocking me!"

Realizing that she had touched him she immediately withdrew her hand and took a step back. "I'm trying to be serious here."

"And I'm trying to get you to get to the point faster!"

"Speak for yourself Mr Ramble mouth!"

He shot her one of his lopsided grins and she melted a little. "Oh so it's going to be like that is it? Well in that case I'm going to use your own words against you. As you used to say to me all summer, 'skip to the end already'!" His imitation of her accent was flawless but for once it didn't raise a smile.

He hated that she was avoiding his eyes again but if that was what she needed to do to say her piece then so be it.

"So in conclusion…" she took a slow deep breath, "all the evidence points to the fact that I _like_ Shane Tinsley, but I _love_ Sam Evans."

The smile that lit Sam's face was so bright that it could have been used to light up a small city. He closed the gap between them and enveloped her in his arms, breathing in her aroma. He wasn't lying when he had tweeted that she smelled good. He used his forefinger to tilt her face up by the jaw and stared down deeply into her eyes.

"So you love me huh?"

She nodded. "Since summer."

He grinned. "That's strange. Me too!"

She chuckled. "You were never going to let me move on, were you?"

He shook his head. "No. If I couldn't move on from you then it meant you were 'The One'. You're the Trinity to my Neo. We're part of each other's destiny."

"So does that mean you're going to walk around in dark glasses and a hot full length leather jacket for me?"

"If the lady so desires!"

"What this lady so desires is her first guilt free kiss since you got ba-"

Sam wasn't even going to wait for the sentence to end to right that wrong.

Forget the soft chaste and restrained kiss at the end of Human Nature. This was the unleashing of the passion which had, until now, only been expressed with their eyes. And this time, Sam had no intention of releasing her until he had completely taken her breath away!

Or ever, for that matter…


	6. TiltAWhirl of Emotion Part 1

**TiltAWhirl of Emotion Part 1: Written July 2012. Just what DID happen on that ride that made them smile in the hallway?**

* * *

Mercedes clutched the coupons tightly in her hand as she walked through the parking lot of the motel. Today was definitely _not_ going as planned. First her car had decided to stop working. There'd been no warning. It just did nothing at all when she had turned the ignition in the morning so it was now in Burt's Autoshop. And now Quinn had texted saying she had period pains and couldn't make it after all.

So that just left just her. Walking.

After discovering a whole bunch of promotional flyers with free ride coupons in her father's dental office, she'd hit on the idea of using the coupons to take Stacy and Stevie to the fair. They both knew that the kids had been dying to go, and as it was only five minutes from the motel, it had been really hard for them to have to pass it every day, knowing that all their friends had been, but they didn't have the money to go. Tonight was the final night of the fair's short stop in Lima and Mercedes had realized that there was a way for the coupons not to go to waste after all. She didn't mind going alone without Quinn but was disappointed not to have teenage company. And whatever you did, fairs were never quite the same when you were an odd number.

She quickly smoothed her hands on her skinny jeans and put a smile on her face as she knocked on the motel room door. The smile became genuine as she heard a cheer break out from Stacy and Stevie inside which was instantly shushed.

"Hey Mercedes!"

"Oh- hi!"

Much to her surprise, the door had been opened by a grinning Sam with Stacy clinging to his legs. He looked behind her with an expression of curiosity. "Where's Quinn?"

"She's sick. So I guess it's just me and the kids. More coupons to go around!"

He seemed disappointed. "Okay, I guess that's cool."

Mercedes wasn't surprised at his disappointment. Quinn may have been his ex but she was still pretty, and the two of them had finally resolved their differences and were getting close again.

He suddenly looked nervous. "Uh, it's a bit messy inside. Could you just wait here a minute while I straighten up?"

"Sure." She was in no rush. She smiled as he closed the door and within seconds she heard the sound of items being thrown everywhere followed by the sound of Sam's frustrated voice saying "Stacy, I don't know where you put your other shoe. _You_ have to look for it!"

Moments later the door opened again and Sam looked apologetic. "They're just coming." He looked behind the door into the room but made no move to go back inside again.

Mercedes involuntarily licked her lips. It hadn't escaped her attention that Sam was wearing and extremely well fitting faded black t-shirt with the Marvel logo across the chest. The combination of the shirt and his well-fitting blue jeans were doing things to her that she didn't like to think about. She needed to distract herself by making conversation. "So what time are you going to work today?"

He blushed and looked embarrassed. "Actually, I read my rota wrong. I'm not working today after all."

So that means Sam was actually free right now… "Uh- Okay…" She fought the urge to ask if he wanted to join them at the fair. A request like that from someone like her to someone like him would just be stupid. Right? She shoved her hands into the pockets of her skinny jeans nervously and fought the urge to pull out her phone and start playing with it as something to do.

"You know, I was just wondering-" her eyes shot up and met his green ones when she realized that he was actually speaking, "- I don't really feel like spending all afternoon staring at these four walls. Do you mind if I take Quinn's place? I think it would be pretty cool to get a chance to go to the fair before it leaves town!"

"Sure." Mercedes hoped the relief didn't show too much on her face. "I'd like that. A lot actually!" _So much for acting cool… _

His smile was like a headlamp on full beam. "That's great! I'll get my sneakers. They're much easier to find than Stacy's!"

He turned and darted back inside before she had a chance to reply to him.

Sam Evans was coming to the fair with her! Just her, him and the kids! Sort of like a date that wasn't actually a date… She bit her lip and chastised herself for harboring such foolish thoughts.

Sam sprang back into the motel room with the grin still spread across his face. Since prom he'd developed a bit of a crush on Mercedes Jones. Not a massive one like he'd had with Quinn, but a soft gentle _comfortable _one that made him feel all soft inside when she was near him. One that made her randomly pop into his thoughts causing him to smile. "Seriously guys, how long can it possibly take for you to get ready?"

"I'm done!" Steve shot him a smug grin. "It's _Stacy_ who can't make up her mind which princess doll she wants to bring with her!"

"Yes I _have_!" scowled the little girl, "I've chosen princess Tiana! Can we go now Sam?"

"Sure munchkin!"

Mercedes was busy playing with her phone when the three Evans children finally made their exit from the motel room. The kids pushed forward to hug her while Sam smiled shyly.

"Um. I hope you guys don't mind but we have to walk. My car's at Burt's Shop. Besides, it would have been a nightmare trying to park up much closer."

They were unfazed. Walking everywhere was nothing new to the Evans' at the moment and they really didn't have far to go at all.

"I wanna hold Mercedes' hand!" Stacy leaped forward and clasped not just her hand, but her whole arm.

"I wanna hold her hand too!" Not to be outdone, Stevie made a grab for her other one.

Sam put on a face like he was upset about all the fuss which didn't involve him. "Hey! Now I feel all left out! Who's going to hold my hand?"

Stacy looked thoughtful. "If Quinn was here you could have held her hand!"

Sam instantly blushed and stared hard at the ground. "Quinn and I don't do stuff like that anymore Stacy."

"I know. But just today you could make an exception. It makes me sad to see you all alone. We'll share Mercedes with you. Maybe you can hold her hand when we get to the fair!"

Sam's blush deepened and Mercedes really hoped that the way he was avoiding looking at her meant that he was also unable to see her blushes. "Let's hurry!" Was all he said, opting to walk at the front of their little group.

* * *

Considering it was the last day of the fair, Mercedes had expected it to be much busier. They hadn't had to do much standing in line and there were only a couple of rides that they still hadn't been on. As an automatic default, on rides with two seats, she'd always gone with Stacy while Sam had taken Stevie.

"Hey it's Alice and James!" Mercedes felt a sudden tug on her hand as Stacy tried to pull her somewhere. "Hold up Stacy! Don't pull away like that, you can easily slip out of my hand and get lost!"

"Sorry Cedes. But it's _Alice and James_!"

Mercedes shot a questioning look to Sam who smiled at her confusion. "They're friends from school. Alice is in Stacy's class and James is in Stevie's."

"Oh right."

By this time the other kids had come over with what looked like their entire family. Alice and James both had brown curly hair and looked like they could be twins with the only difference being that James was significantly taller than his younger sister. There was another older brother of around ten or eleven with the same hair and freckles. The eldest was a girl of about their age, her hair had been straightened and hung loosely on her shoulders. She was very pretty, wearing an unnecessary amount of makeup for being at a fairground and the way she smiled at Sam made Mercedes slightly uncomfortable. Introductions were made all round. The other family were with their parents, Carl and Angela. Carl was blond and resembled a surfer while Angela was much darker with light caramel skin, perhaps mixed race which would explain the children's hair. The older sister was Brianne. 'It figured she'd have a name like that' Mercedes thought to herself. She was willing to place bets that she was probably a cheerleader in whichever school she went to.

"We were just going to grab an icecream. Why don't you guys join us!" Brianne's voice was smooth and rich and her eyes were 100% addressing the invitation to Sam rather than the kids. Her mom joined in with, "Yes! That sounds like a great idea!" She nodded her head down to Stacy and Alice who were already excitedly chatting and comparing their Beanie Babies which had been won for them by their older siblings.

Sam was torn, he didn't mind the idea of the invitation but he was also getting strange vibes from Mercedes. He could tell that she was feeling uncomfortable with the other girl. Quite frankly, he was feeling uncomfortable too. She was staring like she wanted to use him as the dish to eat her icecream from!

"Um… We were about to do a couple more rides. You know, _before _the kids have their icecream…" he said, his voice uncertain.

Stacy looked up at him with big eyes. "But Sam, I don't want to go on any more rides. I want to stay with Alice. Please can I stay with Alice?" She shoved her hand in her pocket and pulled out a crushed dollar bill. "I remembered to bring my money so I can buy a Popsicle!"

It was Carl who eventually saved the day. After shooting a glare at his daughter for blatantly flirting at a boy who was clearly with another girl, he suggested that they take Stacy and Stevie for a bit to have their popsicles so that the kids could spend some time together and he could take Mercedes on some extra rides to use up their coupons.

"But you don't have to-" Mercedes felt bad at the idea of dumping the kids on someone else.

"_Please Cede!_"  
"_Please Mercedes!_"

This time the verbal assault came from both Stacy and now Stevie who had also retrieved his dollar and was proudly waving it about.

Sam shot her a frustratingly annoying smile. "It looks like we've been outvoted baby!" he said, before pointedly looking at Brianne then beaming at Carl. "Thanks sir. That's really kind of you. How about we meet up in twenty minutes at the picnic table by the ice-cream stand?"

Angela smiled and linked her arm through her husband's. "That sounds like a plan. Come on honey, you know how long it takes for the kids to choose their flavors!"

They gathered the kids together and walked away, with Brianne shooting them a dark look of disappointment.

Mercedes nudged Sam playfully. "I think Brianne likes you!" she teased.

"Ugh please! She's scary. Like Santana scary!"

She laughed. "Yeah but you dated Santana!"

"True. That doesn't mean I ever actually stopped being scared of her at any point!"

She cocked her head to the side and raised one eyebrow. "Fascinating!"

Sam fell apart laughing. "Wow! That's the first time I've ever seen Spock with Divatude!"

"Divatude? Boy please! Don't think you're the only one on this planet who can do impressions!"

"If you call that an impress- OUCH! You for a short girl you pack a punch!" He was surprisingly proud of the hit that she'd just laid on him.

"Damn right I do! Nobody insults my impressions, my sci-fi or my comic book knowledge, Sam Evans. Count this as your first and final warning and don't make me mad!"

Sam took the warning with a smile. The more time he spent with Mercedes, the more he came to realize that she was absolute perfection. Suddenly a ride caught his eye.

"Hey, let's go on the Tilt-A-Whirl!"

Mercedes was unsure. "I don't know Sam. I don't want to get sick."

"Come on! It'll be fun! You won't get sick, I promise!"

She smiled. "Sam Evans, don't go making promises that you can't keep!"

"I promise l won't let you get sick Mercedes. Besides, there's no line so we can go straight on!"

"I'm not sure-" Sam wasn't taking no for an answer. He grabbed her by the hand and pulled her in a slow run towards the ride gate. "Just the two of you?"

Sam nodded and they pointed towards a small booth that would have seated no more than three. "See," said Sam, "There wouldn't have been room for us to bring the kids on this anyway!"

Mercedes let out a non-committal sound, still stunned by the fact that he'd just grabbed her hand as if it were the most natural thing in the world to do. She had to admit to herself that for those brief seconds she'd enjoyed that feeling. And now here she was alone on the ride with him. The safety bar came down and the music started. She looked up to see his green eyes staring at her. "You're nervous aren't you?" he asked with a smile.

"No!" She lied.

"Don't worry Mercedes. I promise I'll take good care of you. And I won't spin us too much!"

"Wait! No Sam! No extra spinning! _Please!_"

He laughed at her fear, but it wasn't a malicious laugh, it was more reassuring and warming. "I promise not to spin us if you promise not to throw up on me!"

"Hey, you already promised I wouldn't throw up!"

He grinned, his voice getting louder as the ride began. "I lied. I just wanted you to come on this with me!"

She closed her eyes. "I've got a bad feeling about this!"

Sam smiled at her and put on a voice. "I find your lack of faith disturbing!"

Mercedes couldn't help but laugh. "I wasn't actually quoting Star Wars you know!"

_And this is precisely what makes Mercedes so awesome_ he thought to himself. Nobody else would have picked up on that expression apart from some of the guys from his old school. "I know. But if the words fit and all that!" He smiled as he watched her grip the safety bar tighter and tighter. "You know, it's actually less scary if you keep your eyes open!"

She opened her eyes slightly to shoot him a death glare and got lost in the way that he was staring at her so hard. Suddenly there was a jolt and a tilt and she slid in the seat, crashing into Sam and pressing him up against the edge of the booth.

"Oh my god Sam I am sooo sorry!" She was sorry. Sorry for crushing up against him like that. But what she wasn't sorry for was just how good he felt against her. His body was definitely as firm as it looked, and his height compared with hers made her feel safe. She wasn't going to be sick or scared on this ride with Sam beside her like this.

"It's ok Mercedes. Really, it is!" He smiled as he watched her desperately try to move away from him back to where she had been sitting before she had slid, only to slowly realize that his arm was around her shoulder and she wasn't going anywhere. She looked slightly panicked and slightly scared but he liked the feeling of where she was far too much to let her go just yet.

Neither of them had noticed that the ride had actually stopped until the operator, a middle aged man in a slightly too tight t-shirt (in not such a good way) was stood before them with a smile slowly shaking his head. "Kids these days eh! OK, so as there's no line you and the other set of lovebirds over there can ride again as long as you have a coupon." Mercedes panicked and tried to stand. "Oh but we're not-"

She was stopped by Sam's hand which had slid down to her waist, pulling her back down into the seat beside him. The other hand had reached into his pocket and he handed the man two more vouchers.

"But the kids-"

"-are fine! Quit worrying and enjoy this!"

But how could she quit worrying? The guy had referred to them as a pair of lovebirds and Sam's only response had been to smile. She thought he would have been the first to correct him.

He side-eyed her. "Sheesh Mercedes! What am I going to have to do to make you stop worrying so much?"

The music began and the ride started to move again. How the hell was she supposed to relax when Sam's arm was still around her waist like it belonged there? Suddenly she felt a prod on her side where his hand was and she let out a gasp, glaring at him. That only seemed to amuse him and the prodding became a full on tickle.

It was a closely guarded secret that Mercedes Jones was ticklish. This was because she was very ticklish. Extremely actually. And it was precisely the kind of information that could be used against her if it fell into the wrong hands. Right now those wrong hands were the hands of Sam Evans who had finally worked out what he could do to elicit a smile from her, and now he knew he wasn't going to stop.

"Sam _please!_" Within seconds she was giggling so hard she could hardly breathe. It was a sound that Sam hadn't heard since prom. A magical sound. Something that he wouldn't mind hearing over and over again, and something that he was proud to be the cause of. A Mercedes Jones giggle. The loudness of the music and the speed of the ride meant that he had to move closer in order to be heard. Not such a terrible thing to have to do really! He leaned in and broke out a perfect Austin Powers impression in her ear. "Hmmm… I seem to have discovered your weakness pretty lady!" Mercedes was laughing too hard to reply and he fought his blush as he pulled her in closer. The amount of fun he was having right now almost scared him.

Yet again the ride finished too soon, but this time the operator just smiled and shook his head as Sam offered a third set of vouchers. Even Mercedes seemed reluctant to get up and leave this time. "Maybe one more," she said, between laughs, "But after that we have to go because I don't think my hair can take anymore of this!"

"You look gorgeous, I promise!" He smiled down at her and she avoided his eyes. In all honesty, her hair _had_ messed up since being on the ride. Her ponytail had loosened and there were wispy bits all over the place. But it looked good on her. It looked _natural. _Quinn always looked like she had stepped out of a salon and hated to do anything that would make her look in the least bit disheveled. Sam had lost count of the number of times he had come into the motel room after work to see Mercedes rolling around on the floor with his siblings. Those were the moments when she looked her most natural. Those were the moments, like right now, when she was at her prettiest.

Then Sam noticed two things, firstly that he was now staring at Mercedes, something he quickly covered up by tickling her again, and secondly, he could have sworn that she was blushing. In the whole time he had known her he'd never noticed her blush before. But this was the first time he realized that it was probably because he had never been close enough to her to be able to see it. Close enough, both physically and emotionally.

And that's when he finally understood it. This wasn't just a bit of a crush. He was totally attracted to Mercedes. He was attracted to her curvy body and the way that it felt so good in his arms and pressed up against him in this booth. He was attracted to her smile, both with and without the fruity lipgloss. He had probably always been attracted to those big doe eyes of hers since day one seeing as eyes were his weakness. And he was attracted to the way that she just let him be. He'd done two impressions since they'd been on the ride yet she didn't sigh at them like Quinn or roll her eyes at them like Santana. She laughed with him not at him. Maybe that's why he hadn't minded when the ride operator had thought they were a couple.

Maybe somewhere way deep down he kinda liked the idea. It was just such a shame that he was homeless now and couldn't do anything about it.

Besides. She was the Diva Mercedes Jones. What the hell would she want with him?

"Sam?" He was suddenly pulled from his shocking thoughts by her sensual voice. One more thing to add to the list of things about Mercedes that he really liked. "Sam we have to go now. Other people want to get on."

Yet again he hadn't noticed that the ride had stopped.

The operator looked apologetic as he helped Mercedes climb out but assured them that if they rejoined the line they should be able to get back on for the following ride.

"Are you okay Mercedes?"

He watched as she took a few steps uncertainly, still slightly dizzy from the ride. Well, mostly from the ride and just a little bit from the proximity to Sam. "Yeah I'm fine. Just getting my land feet again. We should go and find the kids."

"Yeah, I guess so. I think Stevie holds the record for speed eating a Popsicle!" Just in time, Sam managed to stop himself from automatically reaching for Mercedes hand (where the hell did that come from?) and instead settled for a guiding hand on the back of her shoulder as they maneuvered their way through the crowd to the picnic tables.

All too soon, the final vouchers had been used up and it was time to go. Stacy was yawning and Mercedes was finding it hard to look Sam in the eye after he had won a purple Beanie Baby 'for her' on one of the stalls. It took a frustratingly short amount of time for them to reach the motel and before she knew it she was hugging Stacy and Stevie goodbye. She was just having the internal debate with herself as to if it would be weird for her not to hug Sam after she'd just hugged his siblings when he suddenly unceremoniously told here to 'wait here' while he dashed inside. She contemplated whether to just leave and go when suddenly he was back.

"Sorry about that. I just needed to speak to my mom." He pulled the door shut and looked her expectantly. "Well come on then!"

She looked back at him with confusion. "Huh? Where are you going?"

"Don't you mean where are _we _going?" That only confused her even more.

"It's nearly dark Mercedes. I'm walking you home. I can't leave you to walk by yourself!"

"Sam its fine! I live less than ten minutes away!"

"And what kind of gentleman would I be if I left a young lady to walk the streets of Lima Ohio alone. Anything could happen to you and I'd never forgive myself!"

Mercedes laughed softly. Quinn always said he was a proper Southern gentleman. She always found it annoying but Mercedes found it endearing. She was brought up by a dad who said a man should always treat a woman right.

They walked most of the way in silence, each trying to think of something to say to open up a conversation before dismissing it as stupid. Before long they were at the end of her street.

"So I had a really good time today." Sam shifted his feet nervously.

"So did I. Thank you for coming Sam."

"No. Thank _you_ for letting me take Quinn's place."

"And thank _you_ for my Beanie."

"It was my pleasure. The least I could do really." There had only been one purple beanie and it had taken Sam three attempts to win it for her. Stacy now had quite a collection of other colored ones that had been won during that process. "So what are you going to call him?"

"I don't know. As Stacy now had a Beanie for each of her princesses, I think I might have to call my one Prince Charming!"

Sam chuckled. "Prince Charming. Yeah. That's a pretty good name."

They approached her door sickeningly fast and that's when things got weird again. A handshake was too formal but if he went in for a hug would she think he was being too forward? He decided to hide it with humor. "So are Stacy and Stevie the only Evans kids that are allowed to get hugs from you?"

She smiled warmly. "Of course not!" Before he knew it he was enveloped in her softness. And even after hours of being outside she still smelled good. She looked almost sad as she turned and unlocked the front door and he knew that he wasn't going to budge until she was safely inside with the door completely shut.

The door was nearly closed when he called out to her. "Hey Mercedes?"

"Yes?" Her eyes peeked back round the door expectantly.

"Uh, can I see you tomorrow?" She smiled a smile so warm that he literally felt his insides going mushy. "I was thinking... well it's just that I'm taking the kids to the lake and they'd really like it if you came too."

She eyed him carefully. "Oh they would, would they?"

He shot her his most endearing and charming grin. "_They _would really love it."

"Okay. I will. For _them._"

It took all of Sam's willpower not to immediately fistbump the air and say 'YES'! Mercedes was going to spend the day with him tomorrow! Could things get any more perfect?

She was back inside with the door nearly shut when she turned around one last time. "Oh and Sam, tell the kids I'll be bringing cookies."

Yep. Things definitely could get more perfect!


	7. TiltAWhirl of Emotion Part 2

**TiltAWhirl of Emotion Part 2**

* * *

He saw her as she turned the corner, laden with bags. He tried and failed to ignore the fact that his heart most definitely skipped a beat at the sight of her. And the poor girl was trying to rush once she'd seen them! She wasn't late, they were early. Mostly caused by Sam's childlike excitement and anticipation. After instructing Stacy and Stevie not to move, he trotted over and relieved her of the bags.

"Wow! What are you carrying? I already said I was bringing sandwiches!"

"Homemade cookies and muffins!"

"Muffins?"

"Shhhh. They're a surprise. I was going to give them to the kids on the way home as a treat to share for all of you. I'm beginning to suspect your mom and dad never see any of the cookies I bake do they?"

Sam's sheepish grin was the answer she was already expecting.

"I hope you didn't have to rush too much Cedes."

She shook her head. "I wasn't rushing till I looked at the time. It's been a long while since I had to take the bus."

"Same here." Sam looked as if he was calling something to mind and Mercedes remembered that before this, his family did have a more than comfortable amount of money. He finally snapped out of it and looked down at her feet. "I hope you have sensible shoes because it's a bit of a hike between the bus and the lake!"

"Don't worry Sam," she smiled, "I'm completely prepared for today!"

…

"Owwww!" Sam stared down at his hand which had just been slapped by Mercedes for attempting to reach into the Tupperware container of cookies. "What did you hit me for?"

"The cookies aren't for now, they're for later!"

"But-"

"But nothing Sam. We're saving them for Stacy's tea party."

"Stacy's tea party?"

"Yep. But don't worry. You're invited. You just need to be patient. Anyway, I thought that you and the kids are going to play in the water!"

"We are. But you're coming too, right?"

She shook her head. "I didn't bring my swimsuit."

Sam bit his lip to hide his disappointment. To say that he'd been looking forward to seeing Mercedes in a swimsuit was a complete understatement. He'd been planning all sorts of moves to pull to ensure that she would have to 'bounce' around in front of him. "I can't believe you didn't bring one!"

"Sam! I don't want to get the weave wet, okay!"

"You wouldn't have to get your hair wet!"

"Oh please. Are you honestly trying to say that once I go anywhere near the water, you and Stevie won't start splashing me and try to push me in?"

Sam smiled a guilty smile. Of course that's exactly what would happen. "Ok, I'll let you off for today. But next time we come I want to see you in a swimsuit!"

"Next time? Who says there'll be a next time?"

"I do. You're too much fun to hang around with." Sam felt his ears turn red and suddenly realized how stupid he sounded. "Er- and the kids- the kids say you're really fun!"

"Hmmm…" Despite giving him the side eye, she was unable to keep her lips from twitching into a small smile.

"_Sammy?_" Sam looked over to where Stacy was calling him. The relieve he felt at the distraction was immeasurable. "Sorry I have to-" He pointed to Stacy and was gone in an instant.

Mercedes was also relieved. She couldn't exactly tell him the whole truth of why she didn't bring her swimsuit. If it had just been her and the kids she would have thought nothing of it. Obviously it was true that she didn't want her hair wet. But she would rather a hundred lake water sodden and matted weaves than Sam Evans seeing her in nothing but a swimsuit. Sure she rocked her curves, but there was something so exposing about a swimsuit that she just couldn't do in front of him. Someone like him. What would he think of her? He would never want to be seen hanging around with the likes of her after having been with Quinn and Santana. No, the more she kept under wraps, the better.

But that didn't stop her from watching them out of the corner of her eye. It didn't stop her from watching Sam as he pulled his shirt off over his head. It didn't stop her from admiring the way his shoulders were broad and how his back tapered nicely down to his waist. And when he bent forward to step out of his pants, leaving him just in a pair of simple black swim shorts… _Oh lord that ass…_

Small but tight and perfectly formed.

Boy should have just stayed bent over forever!

Mercedes licked her lips and finally managed to avert her eyes, reaching for her book and pretending to read for nearly twenty minutes all the while failing to notice that not only was the book upside down, but also that she wasn't actually turning any pages.

Finally she gave up, an idea forming in her head. She pulled the bottle of sunscreen from her bag and made her way over to where the kids were shouting and playing excitedly. Sam spotted her first, shooting her one of his lopsided grins that she did her best to pretend didn't make her insides turn into melted icecream. She couldn't be sure, but the way he was looking at her was almost as if-

No. She was being stupid. But she grinned to herself anyway at the sheer idea of it anyway.

"Stacy! Stevie! It's time to reapply your sunscreen!" They immediately stopped what they were doing and trotted over to her. Being blond they already knew the drill of reapplication when playing in water. She did Stacy first who then decided that she didn't want to go back to the water after all. Stevie was itching to get back and could barely stay still.

She was just putting the cap back on when a shadow fell across her. "Is there any left for me?" _Damn that lopsided grin was even cuter close up._

"Sure!" She handed him the bottle and avoided his eyes as he rubbed some of the lotion between his hands before sliding them first along his arms, then along his abs. Her mouth instantly became dry and she swallowed in a failed attempt to lubricate it. Taking a little more, he made a big show of putting it on his shoulders and trying to reach his back. He then grinned at her again, forcing her to catch his eye. "Mercedes?"

"Yes?"

"Er- do you think you could-"

Without a word she took the bottle from his hand, not trusting that her voice wouldn't come out as a pathetic croak or worse still, a squeal. He sat down patiently in front of her just as his siblings had done before and she poured lotion into her shaking hand.

_Oh hell. Even the muscles on his shoulders were taunt and defined._

_And yes they did feel as solid as a rock!_

As she began to rub the lotion into his smooth skin she felt him breathing out slowly. _Had he been holding his breath? Why would he be doing that?_ She had no idea that from the moment she had touched him, Sam was struggling to hold it together.

"Stevie's not supposed to go in the water by himself!"

Sam and Mercedes were drawn to the sound of Stacy's voice. They both looked up to the water's edge to see a sheepishly faced Stevie. He then turned and glared at his sister for ratting him out like that. Sam quickly stood. "Thanks. I- erm – I'd better get back to Stevie before he disappears from sight. You coming munchkin?"

He held out his hand to Stacy but she shook her head. "I want to stay with Mercedes now."

"Okay…"

"It's fine Sam. We'll get prepared for the tea party."

Sam rolled his eyes and appreciatively watched Mercedes' retreating form as they headed off for some girl time.

By the time Stevie had had enough in the water, the girls had laid paper plates and cookies out on the blanket, together with cups of Kool-Aid and decorated the blanket with freshly picked flowers. Sam stalked over to them, completely unaware that the fact his decision to throw on just his jeans and leaving the upper part of his body dry out naturally in the sun was having such a distracting effect on Mercedes. The sight of him with his slicked wet hair, toned torso and low slung jeans were making her have the kind of thoughts that made her glad that telepathy remained firmly in the realm of fiction.

The sight of cookies made the boys move faster. Both Sam and Stevie went to sit by a plate each but Stacy quickly pushed Sam away. "Nooooo! You're doing it all wrong!" Her frown was deep and her pout was huge. Sam looked over to Mercedes to see if she knew what was going on but she simply shrugged and shot him a 'it's her tea party - her rules' look.

Stacy pulled Sam to the side. "We are having a tea party as a _family. _You're daddy, Mercedes is mommy and me and Stevie are the kids!"

"Okay…" Sam still looked confused. "So what do I have to do?"

She pointed to a spot near the blanket. "You have to wait _here_ because you're coming home from work. But don't worry, we've saved you some cookies!"

Sam looked unsure but did as he was told. "Is it okay if I put my shirt back on? They have a rule at work where you must be wearing a shirt at all times."

"Sure!" the little girl nodded as she returned to her place on the blanket.

_Nooooooooo! Boy be looking damn fine as he is!_ But then, the act of pulling the shirt back on, especially the way he had to stretch his torso more than made up for the lack of exposed skin. Her attention was diverted by Stacy who started handing out the cookies. Stevie reached for two but she rapidly pulled the box away from him. Finally realizing that it was in his interests to play along rather than resist he suddenly cocked his head to the side and said "I think I heard the front door!"

Right on cue, Sam pretended as if he was opening the front door before shouting "Is anyone at home?"

"Daddy! We're in here having a tea party!" shouted Stacy. She leapt to her feet and flung herself at the rapidly approaching smiling Sam.

"Hey munchkin!" He pulled her into his arms and kissed her on the cheek before carrying her back to the others. "I missed you daddy!"

"I missed you too darlin'"

Mercedes cleared her throat and shot the little girl a stern look. "Stacy sweetheart, remember we must always excuse ourselves before leaving the table!"

"Yes momma!" Sam quickly released her and she sat back in her place as Mercedes continued. "Although I also accept that daddy was also partially to blame this time!"

She shot Sam a look and he returned it sheepishly. "Yes momma!" he said with a smile. Walking round to Stevie he rubbed his hair and pulled him into a one armed hug. "Hey Stevie!"

"Hey dad!" The boy's voice lacked enthusiasm. Mostly because he was just waiting to get started on the cookie and the drink.

Now was the moment he got to take a chance and hope that she would play along too. He slid down next to Mercedes, putting his arm around her for a side hug and sneaking a quick peck on her cheek. "Hey honey. Did you miss me?"

He could have sworn she was blushing as she bit her lip and struggled for a response, before finally looking him straight in the eye and saying "What do _you_ think?"

_What did he think? Right at that moment he thought that she was the most beautiful girl in the world and he wouldn't mind coming home every day to a family setup just like this! _But he wasn't going to run away with himself. He broke the moment he had created by grabbing the container and saying 'cookies' in his most excited voice.

It took a while for Mercedes' heart to slow down to its normal pace, but when it did she found her voice again and the tea party actually turned out to be fun. They shared stories, sang songs and ate far too many cookies. Stacy was hailed as the greatest tea party planner in the whole world and her smile beamed for the rest of the afternoon.

oOo

"What are you thinking about?" Sam was sat on a large old fallen tree trunk on the water's edge, staring out into the distance with his chin in his hands when Mercedes perched on it alongside him.

He shrugged. "Nothing. And everything." He straightened his spine and sat upright. "This is the place where I come to just sit and think. When I need to get out of the cramped motel room I come out here."

Mercedes looked around them, at the trees and the waters and the plants. "It's so calm and serene here."

"It's beautiful." As Sam said the words his eyes were completely on her.

She began to shift under his stare. "I bet it's really gorgeous at sunset."

"It is. The colors are amazing. We should come here and watch the sunset one day."

Sam was still staring and she could feel her face burning. Before she could put together a suitable response her mouth betrayed her "Yeah, I'd like that."

She pretended to herself that the smile that broke out on his face in response to her reply was not one of pure joy.

"What time is it?"

Mercedes looked at her watch. "3.20"

Sam couldn't hide the disappointment in his face. "We have to go." He said sadly. "I have to work this evening and if we run we can catch the next bus back into town."

"Oh, okay." Mercedes felt it too. That feeling of knowing they should leave but not being ready to go yet. She wanted to hang out with them a little longer. She wanted to hang out with _Sam _a little longer.

On the bus home she was sat with Stacy and Mrs Evans wasn't back from work yet which meant that Sam had to stay back with the kids rather than walk her home.

Neither of them were ready to say goodbye that day.

oOo

The next morning Mercedes was in a funk. She didn't feel like getting up so she stayed in bed until her stomach decided that its desire for lunch was greater than her need to hide away from the world. She moved around the house lethargically, wishing for company but having none. Spending time with Sam and the kids made her realize just how much she missed her brother and just how much she hated being on her own over the summer. Most summers she would be hanging out with Kurt at the Mall, but this summer he had Blaine and all previous arrangements were forgotten in favor of the curly haired Warbler.

It was only after a post-lunch snooze on the couch in front of the TV that she remembered her phone was still on the kitchen counter. Seeing the missed call and voicemail she instantly hit 'play' hoping beyond all hope that it was Sam.

It wasn't. Of course it wasn't. Sam didn't have his phone anymore.

It was Burt letting her know that her car was now fixed and ready to collect. Finally she had the motivation to get out of the house. It still took her ages to get ready and actually leave, her motivation being the garage closed at 7 and she wanted to get there before it shut. She knew that Burt would let her pick up her car after hours but she didn't want to intrude on his family time.

Throwing on some comfortable clothes (a pair of skinny jeans and a pink and white striped top) she quickly freshened up, grabbed her keys and made the 20 minute walk to Hummel&Son Autoshop, making it there moments before it closed.

"Hey Mr H!"

"Mercedes!" He pulled her into his arms and hugged her tight. Her years of friendship and sleepovers with Kurt had made her practically a daughter to him. "How's the family?"

"They're good."

"I'm glad. Dad won't be quite so good when he gets my invoice for the work on your car, but that's all part of having kids eh!" He grinned and winked at Mercedes and she laughed back. Burt never charged them the full amount so she knew that her dad would have no issue with whatever work had been done to her vehicle. He reached behind the desk and grabbed a set of keys which he handed to her. "Good as new!"

"Thanks Mr H!"

"No problem. Just as long as I get another one of your hugs I can spend the rest of the evening happy."

She quickly squeezed him again and he laughed before excusing himself to freshen up and telling her that she could see herself out when she was ready.

She had just unlocked her car and was about to get inside when she heard her name.

"Mercedes?"

_It couldn't be…_

She turned around to see him heading towards her from the back office with a huge smile on his face. Again, if she didn't know better, she would have said that he was genuinely pleased to see her. If only she had made a bit more of an effort when she had got dressed to come out!

"Sam? What are you doing here?"

"Burt had some extra work for a couple of hours so he called me to come in and help out."

"But you just came from inside the house."

"Yeah. Carole let me have a shower afterwards then she wouldn't let me go until I'd had some of her turkey pot pie."

"Carole's turkey pot pie is legendary!"

"I know. But she also makes you eat lots of vegetables!" Sam wrinkled his nose in mock disgust and Mercedes laughed.

"They're good for you Sam! Are you the kind of guy that needs to be told every single day to eat his five a day?"

_Are you applying for the job? Coz if you want it it's yours! _Sam bit his lip and ran his fingers through his hair, unaware of the way that it caused Mercedes' breathing to deepen. "Let's just say I'm trying!"

They stood for a few moments just smiling at each other before Mercedes remembered her manners. "Hey do you need a ride back?"

"Sure!"

She climbed in the car as he slid into the passenger seat. When she placed her hands on the steering wheel another wave of sadness swept over her and she led out a small, barely audible sigh.

"What's up?" Sam was looking at her. _Again._

"Nothing."

"It's not nothing. You looked sad all of a sudden."

"I'm fine!" she said, starting up the engine.

"You know can always talk to me. If, you know, you ever feel the need or anything…" He shot her what he hoped was his most earnest facial expression but she took one look at him and started giggling. "What's so funny?"

"You! Your face looked so serious but funny at the same time."

"Oh so now I have a funny face?"

"No. I'm not saying that. Barbara Streisand holds that title. Your face was just so cute!"

"Oh so now I'm cute?" He wiggled his eyebrows at her and she giggled even harder.

"Stop distracting me Sam, I'm trying to drive!"

"What! I'm just trying to look even more cute!"

"Boy please! You'll never be able to compete with the cuteness of Stevie so quit trying!"

"Aww no! Don't make me compete with my own brother!"

"From where I'm sitting there's no competition!"

"You know, I should be mad but I'm not." He wasn't. He'd got her to go from sad to laughing in record time and nothing felt better than that. "I need you to time travel back to when I was eight and look me up. _Then_ we'll see who you decide is cuter."

Mercedes giggled as she kept her eyes on the road. "It'll still be Stevie!"

Before long it they were in the motel parking lot and it was Sam's turn to sigh as he took off his seatbelt.

"You don't want to go in there right now do you?"

He shook his head. "Nope."

She nodded in agreement. "I know what you mean. I don't think I can face my empty house either."

An idea began to form in Mercedes' head but she was too scared to vocalize it. _It was nearly sunset. _Sam seemed to be having the same problem.

"You know we could go somewhere-"  
"Can we see the lake at sunset?"

They both looked at each other and laughed at the same time. "I think the lake would look awesome tonight" he said quietly.

oOo

She had finally opened up to him as they walked through the trees to the lake. She explained that her brother was supposed to have come and spent some time at home over the summer, but he was having so much fun with his friends that he'd decided to come just for a long weekend at the end of the summer break. She missed him and now that he wasn't coming, the house felt empty with her in it all day all alone. And without Kurt around she was feeling it more than ever. Sam had taken her hand briefly and assured her that whenever she missed her sibling, she was more than welcome to spend time with his instead. That had made her smile.

He would do anything to make her smile.

And so here they were, at the edge of the lake. After picking an assortment of flat stones, Sam had attempted to show her how to skim them on the water. Unfortunately she hadn't had much success. But instead of being upset she was content just to stand and stare out at the water, the various orange hues reflected on it in stark contrast to the green trees around them.

"It's beautiful," she whispered to nobody in particular.

Sam couldn't agree more.

There was something about the moment that captured him. Being surrounded by all the colors made him feel like they were in the middle of a painting and the artist was still making brush strokes around them. Everything was so calm and quiet and serene. It was like the stage had been set and everything around them was frozen in place, waiting for something to happen.

Waiting for _him_ to make something happen.

"You're amazing. You know that?" As usual, Sam was doing his random blurting out of words, but this time in addition he was doing that intense staring thing again and she looked away, back out across the water.

"You don't believe me when I say that do you?" he pressed.

She shrugged, turning to face the water again, gently running her fingers over the smooth stone in her hand before flicking her wrist as she flung it towards the water.

One… two… three…

It finally sunk on the fourth.

She turned to Sam with a huge grin. "Did you just see that? I did it! I finally did it!" She held her hand up for a hi-five.

Sam lifted his hand to meet hers before stopping and shaking his head. "Hell that deserves more than I hi-five or a fist bump. I call for a celebratory hug!"

She chuckled. "You fool! Clearly Stacy isn't the only cuddle monster in your family!" But the grin didn't leave her face as she allowed herself to be wrapped in his arms.

Without realizing he closed his eyes and took a second just to inhale her and revel in her softness before pulling back slightly. He meant to grin but somehow it came out as more of a frown, suddenly serious in a moment that had been lighthearted. Sam couldn't help himself. He was experiencing a sudden feeling of drowning, overwhelmed with the moment.

Throwing caution to the wind he leaned forward brushing his lips against her smiling mouth. Against her full lips. They were so soft and his chest began to pound as he kissed her softly and gently.

But within a couple of seconds he pulled away, realizing that she had frozen like a statue.

That she _hadn't kissed him back!_

What the hell had he been thinking! He _was_ a fool! He had read the whole situation wrong and now he had made a complete idiot of himself. He stepped back, staring at the ground, absently kicking his sneaker on a patch of grass, wishing it was his own head that he was kicking. _How could he have been so stupid?_

"Sam?" Her voice was quiet, hesitant and confused.

All he wanted to do was run and hide from his humiliation. It had been the perfect moment and he had ruined it with his own twirling emotions. Sam Evans, always too quick to speak, always too quick with the goofy comments and impression. Dork extraordinaire!

He could barely get the words out of his mouth. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have-"

"No- it was me! I didn't- I didn't expect it!"

Sam opened his mouth but for once in his life he had no words to day. He wanted to apologize, to say sorry for kissing her, but he didn't. He couldn't because he _had _wanted to kiss her.

She was mirroring his actions now, kicking at her own patch of grass and refusing to look him in the eye, taking his silence as an admission of regret. "I- I get it. Can we just forget that it ever happened?"

The question burned between them like a white hot light which refused to be ignored. And neither of them wanted the answer to be 'yes'. They both found their voices at exactly the same moment.

"I moved too fast and I shouldn't have-"  
"I never had anyone kiss me before-

They both suddenly jerked their heads back up, eyes meeting for the first time since the kiss as it suddenly dawned on each of them that they had both read the situation wrong. Mercedes was the first to speak. "You took me by surprise. I didn't know how to react. I didn't know what I was supposed to do! I guess I freaked out!"

Until that point it had not once occurred to him that Mercedes Jones had never been kissed. At least that was something that he _could_ remedy. Something he could do for her that didn't require money. He leaned forward and caressed her face looking her eyes onto his and refusing to let her look away. "I'm not sorry I kissed you Mercedes. I'm just sorry that I stole your first kiss like that. If I had known I would have wai-"

Mercedes raised her forefinger and pressed it against his lips to shush him. "You may have stolen my first kiss… But I'm gifting you my second." With that she stood on tiptoes and leaned upward on her toes to kiss him, her eyes closed and her head tilted up.

He knew that he should have respected the moment and closed his eyes too but he didn't. He wanted to see this. He _needed _to see this. Her beautiful face as he moved in to meet her for the kiss. Everything had been leading up to this moment. And from the second she had slid into him on the tilt-a-whirl, knocking not just her wonderfully soft self, but also some much needed _common sense_ into him, they had been on a crash course towards this moment. Or maybe he was wrong. Maybe it was prom… The beginning didn't really matter because right now he was somewhere in the middle. He thought of all the times that he had wanted to kiss her; in the midst of tickling her on the ride, as he had walked her home in uncomfortable silence afterwards, as he had watched her disappear through her front door, as he had watched her run towards her with her hands full of goodies... And then he was glad that he hadn't because _this_ was their moment. This was the memory that they were making. _This_ was their spot. The lake. At sunset. The world could do what it liked around them, but right here, in the little clearing, this little spot was theirs. Away from and absentee siblings, away from financial insecurity and homelessness, away from the prying eyes of the Glee club, the school and the whole damn town of Lima.

Mercedes was still caught up in her swirl of emotions as Sam moved to sit on the fallen log, pulling her onto his lap and settling his arms around her waist as he kissed her again and again while stroking her back gently. _Sam Evans wanted her! _Between that and the kisses it was all that her poor brain could handle.

As for Sam, he'd gone from a soft gentle crush, to a firm and sure crush into something far more solid and tangible. He pulled back slightly and smiled as he stared into her soft brown eyes. She returned the smile without breaking his stare and he knew right there and then that this was something new. Something bright, exciting and a little bit scary, but something that he already knew he was more than prepared to fight for.

But for now it was just them, wrapped in each other's arms, watching the sun slowly set over the water, cocooned in their little world all of their own.

And they wanted to stay in it forever.


	8. Sitting Under Trees

**Sitting Under Trees : _Originally published May 2011 as a oneshot alternative ending to part 2 of my Samcedes Trilogy (40 Days of Summer)_**

* * *

Mercedes took a long walk around the campus. Now that she had been there for a week she was finally beginning to feel oriented within the facility and was even starting to discover some of the short cuts.

She still couldn't believe she had made it. College in New York! Her dream had come true. And although they weren't at the same college, she wasn't far away from her friends Kurt and Rachel as they also pursued their dreams in the big city. The first week at been a blur, getting used to the new area, city life and her chaotic new roommate Lily who's life ran like a soap opera. She and her boyfriend had one of those 'dramatic' relationships where there were as many tears as there were dreamy looks, makeups as there were breakups, and misunderstandings as there were love-ins. Who needed TV when real life was across the hall?

Mercedes was glad not to have that kind of drama in her life. Being single was definitely working for her and she didn't want to lose her focus.

Throughout most of her senior year she'd dated Shane. He was a nice enough guy. Almost too nice. But it had rapidly become pretty clear that the relationship was not evenly balanced. Yes she liked him, but _he loved _her and it wasn't fair to do that to someone. The balance in the relationship was all wrong and the longer she was in it the more it just didn't feel right. Shane wanted the best for her and wanted to take control so that she got what he felt to be the most out of life. In the beginning that was fine. He gave her a life plan and a motivation at a point in time when she had lost hers. But after a few months that control had become overpowering and she'd had to question what she was doing and why she was with him. The honest answers to those questions weren't easy to swallow. There were unresolved feelings that she had for someone else that she'd been repressing and doing her utmost to run away from.

_Her brain flashed a mental image of a pair of sparkling green eyes and she quickly shook it off._

Suddenly her bag felt heavy and she looked for a place to sit. She'd picked up a flyer for a talent competition that was going to be held on campus and she wanted somewhere quiet to read and complete the application form. Lily and her boyfriend were in the room having a 'heart to heart' and she wanted to be nowhere near there when it either went wrong or went well.

She spotted a large shady tree and spread down her denim jacket to sit underneath it. She paused quietly for a moment, thoughtfully twisting a couple of her braids through her fingers. It had been many years since she'd worn her hair in braids and she'd forgotten the old habit that she used to have. She loved playing with hair.

_Again the image of soft blond hair falling into those sparkling green eyes..._

Recollecting herself, she opened the bag to retrieve the forms and go through them properly.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw a figure walking in the distance. She paid no attention. It drew closer and was soon to pass when the person came to an abrupt stop.

She didn't look up. She didn't know anyone here. It was nothing to do with her. And one of the questions on the form made no sense at all.

The figure took a couple of steps closer, this time definitely in her direction and paused again. At the end of this paragraph she would look up if the person had not moved on by then. If it turned out to be some creep she'd cuss them out.

"Mercy? Is that you?"

She froze. Only one person called her Mercy outside of her immediate family. And the deep voice had immediately sent butterflies raging through her stomach.

_Surely it couldn't be. It's only because I was just thinking about him…_

She slowly lifted her head, fully expecting to have made a complete mistake. Her brain playing tricks. It did that when she was feeling sad.

And yet...

Maybe a hallucination?

No. Not from where she was sitting.

It was definitely him. His hair was even shorter and even more brown than she remembered. But the smile was the same. That familiar cheeky lopsided grin. She could feel herself melting like some pre-teen over a boy band.

Wasn't she supposed to still be mad at him for leaving the way that he did?

"H-hi!" Nope. She was definitely grinning stupidly like a teenager who suddenly came face to face with their pop idol or favourite actor. _Even_ a_fter all this time you still have no game girl..._

They spent a moment like that, him standing and her sitting. Just staring at each other, disbelieving, each drinking in the sight of the other, before finally the awkwardness set in.

Where do they pick this up? It's not as if they'd ended on bad terms. But things between them felt so... unfinished. She had to say something to break the ice.

"So what are you doing here?"  
"So what are you doing here?"

Their voices rang out at exactly the same time and they laughed, each recalling different events when they had done that before. When they had shared the same thoughts at the same time and when they had finished each other's sentences.

The laughter eased the tension.

"You first!"  
"You first!"

"No you!"  
"No you!"

They couldn't help it. He took a step closer. That lopsided smile turning the butterflies in her stomach to a physical pain.

"I thought you were in Memphis!" This time she got the words in first. He shook his head slowly, looking at the spot next to her. She nodded wildly before cursing herself for looking so eager, but before she knew it he was sitting next to her under the tree.

She could smell him. That clean man smell of soap. It made her chest constrict and brought back heady memories of an afternoon in the motel room before being cruelly interrupted. And damned if he didn't look like he was actually sniffing her like a puppy! But she wasn't wearing anything. He would be getting nothing but the cocoa butter she used when she came out of the shower earlier! She hadn't exactly been expecting to see him or anyone special today!

He was leaning slightly towards her and she had to practically sit on her hands to resist the urge to reach out and touch him. _He's not your boyfriend anymore. You don't have the right to do that._

But he was smiling at her so sweetly, the expression on his face indicating that he was genuinely pleased to see her.

He was shaking his head slowly in response to her statement. The but she was so distracted she'd almost forgotten the statement she'd just made. _What was it? Oh yeah - Memphis. _

"I got a sports scholarship."

"That's fantastic Sam! What about your family? Did things start to work out for you after the move?"

He stopped smiling. "Yes and no. Initially things got worse. Dad's drinking got worse even though my grandparents tried to put him into therapy. Then one day he walked out on us. Apparently he'd got some 19 year old girl pregnant and ran off with her. It was a huge scandal and mom was devastated. They'd been together since high school."

"Oh my god that's terrible! I'm so sorry Sam."

"Don't be. He'd already stopped being my dad by the time we'd left Lima. Anyway, to cut a long story short, from the moment he was gone things got a lot better for us. Mom found this amazing job which pays really well and Stevie and Stacy, after a shaky start, started doing really well in school. My grandparents love them and because t hey felt terrible for dad abandoning us, insisted we live with them permanently. It helps mom out because the kids can come home from school everyday and be with grandma while she saves to get her own place eventually when they're older. My tutor helped me raise my grades and through my football I was offered a scholarship to come here. And the rest, they say, is history."

He paused for a moment. "Why didn't you respond to any of my emails?"

She knew he would ask that. She bit her lip. She didn't expect to have to explain herself so soon.

"I guess you were too busy with your new boyfriend." He looked hurt and she flinched. _How did he know? Oh I will KILL Kurt!_

"You mean ex-boyfriend!"

"_Ex?_" There was an expression in his eyes that looked a lot like hope...

"We broke up a few months ago."

"Didn't he treat you right? I hope to god he treated you right!" Sam's response was disproportionately passionate.

"He treated me like a true gentleman. It was me who didn't treat him right."

"How come?" The green eyes had an earnest expression now.

As before, she couldn't lie to Sam. She could only speak the absolute truth, even if it hurt. "I had unresolved feelings for someone else. Someone I was avoiding for exactly the same reason." _How does he always manage to do this to me?_

He was biting his lip too. _Same words, same mannerisms..._

"So why did you choose this college?" She knew she needed to change the subject as soon as possible.

He shrugged almost dismissively. "There was this beautiful girl I knew who once said that she always wanted to come here. And I knew that she would move heaven and earth to make sure that she got here. I came because part of me hoped one day this beautiful girl might notice me and finally allow me back into her life."

_Damn that boy always had a way with words!_

"You said you loved me!" _Oh no - did I really just say that out loud? And why the hell did it pop out so randomly like that?_

His eyes never left hers but the blush than went through him was a strong one. "I thought you didn't hear me."

"I didn't. Not properly. I was already halfway through the door. But then I was thinking about it later and I tried to look up what you said on Navilator but I had no clue on the spelling. I was playing around with the website another time when I finally worked it out. Did you mean what you said?"

He nodded, looking down at his hands.

"I wanted to say it too Sam. But I was scared. It seemed too soon. I know it wouldn't have made any difference but now I wish I had."

His eyes were back on hers, now the deepest shade of green she had ever seen them. He reached out and tucked a stray braid behind her ear. "Mercy, my feelings haven't changed. Not one little bit."

Even though they were outside, Mercedes could have sworn that all the air had somehow disappeared. And her heart, it was starting to pound out a beat that she could feel in her stomach.

She reached out to touch his hair in return. It was shorter than she remembered. But still felt as good between her fingers.

He was looking at her expectantly for a reply.

It wasn't supposed to be this easy. They were supposed to fight and yell and get all angsty with each other.

And yet here she was, bringing his head towards hers.

To give him his reply that words would never be enough to express.

Who did the 90% and who did the 10% she didn't know but their lips met and it was...

It was...

It was beautiful.

It was as if the whole heartbroken senior year never happened.

Mercedes Jones had come home.

For sure this was the last boy she was ever going to kiss.

He pulled her closer and deepened the kiss as he took control of her lips and without thinking she willingly let him.

Then the strangest thing happened.

She both heard and felt him chuckle. Right there. Against her lips.

She pulled back. "Hey! What's so funny?"

Mercedes wanted to be angry. Why was Sam laughing while he kissed her? But more than being angry she wanted to feel his lips back on hers.

"Us!"

It wasn't the reply she was expecting and it confused her. "What's so funny about us?"

His eyes were twinkling with amusement. "We always seem to be sitting and kissing under trees! We even got together in New York under a tree!"

Thinking about it for a second she knew that he was absolutely right and couldn't help but join him with her own infectious giggle. "Too true!"

He kissed her once more then leapt up, reaching out his hand to pull her up after him.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"Correction. Where are _we_ going? I seem to remember I owe you some dates. At the very least an Italian meal, a Mexican meal and a trip to the fairground."

She laughed as he pulled her close, revelling in that familiar feeling of their bodies pressed together.

He continued "So how about we go and get something to eat and we can have a little chat about these unresolved feelings of ours!"

She grinned and reached up to kiss his nose before settling for his lips. _Darn if that boy hadn't grown at least another inch over the last year! _"Sounds like a good plan to me!"

As they walked away Mercedes looked back at the big old tree.

She was _definitely_ looking forward to spending college sitting and kissing under trees with Sam Evans!


	9. Sam's Prom

**Sam's Prom: ****_Written July 2011 (That long ago already!) This was originally the first chapter of Never Saw It Coming but as I'm rejigging that before posting I decided to remove it from the fic and leave it here as a oneshot instead so that the alternating POV doesn't become too repetitive. This was the first ever chapter I posted on fanfiction so it makes me feel quite nostalgic. Mercedes' view of the night is now the first chapter of the actual fic._**

* * *

Sam wasn't entirely sure if there was a specific event the night of the prom that made it so special - all he knew was that somehow it had turned out to be one of the best nights of his life. For a nanosecond he'd been a little unsure of the proposal from Rachel and Mercedes to escort them to the prom but it hadn't taken him long to conclude that to go with a diva on each arm could only be to his advantage in the popularity stakes! The plan had been to milk it for all it was worth, turning up with not one but two dates, until Jesse St Jerkoff had joined them and made it an even number.

His parents had been glad to see that he was going out and having fun. They knew how hard he'd been working to help them out and contribute, but at the same time, they also realized he was a teenage boy who needed to get out and have fun. They remembered how excited they'd been on their prom night and didn't want him to miss out on the experience so they made sure they were home early enough to not need a sitter for night.

This was the first night Sam really got to speak to Mercedes on the one to one and he was amazed at just how much they had in common. He knew that she was a popular girl – not for being a Cheerio, but for being a kind soul, sassy and independent, and he respected a person who could maintain such a good rep. She'd certainly been busy with the others helping his family by babysitting his brother and sister. They adored her and the little of their interaction that he'd seen proved she was amazing with his siblings. Nobody deserved a bit of happiness more than those kids and he was grateful for anyone who could give it during his family's dark time. Secretly she was also his favorite voice in the Glee club. Sure Rachel did have an amazing voice and get the solos, but Mercedes always seemed to have that added touch of 'soul' which made her music stand out more to him. Her singing wasn't just technical, it was emotional. Her solo on the 'Night of Neglect' had completely taken his breath away.

Then it happened again. Because prom was the night she'd pitched up in that damn sexy hot pink diva dress, looking like a princess of soul.

Dinner at breadsticks was unexpectedly fun. Rachel and Jesse spent most of it in their own world but he was surprised to find that he equally quickly fell into easy conversation with Mercedes. Having an older brother who was into sci-fi meant that she was really clued up on the movies he was interested in and he felt like less of a dork discussing the finer details of the Star Wars saga with her than with any other girl he'd chatted to. Hell, the girl was the first one from McKinley who didn't hate on him for dropping in the odd word in Na'vi!

It was refreshing being on a 'date' without the whole stress of it being a 'date', so it was a complete irritation when Finn and Quinn arrived at their table and Jesse got his hackles up. He'd been having a pretty intense conversation with Mercedes and didn't appreciate the interruption or the possibility of having to intervene. Personally he wasn't happy with the way that Jesse had been trying to rub Finn's nose in the fact that he was back in favor with Rachel. It was a childish and he didn't know him well enough to be able to excuse it. Plus there was something smug about Jesse's face that just irritated him, but if Rachel was happy then he would be happy for her.

But seeing Quinn had definitely stung. He could barely look her in the eye as she clung to Finn. He'd offered her his world and she didn't even have the courtesy to say that she still had feelings for her ex. Rachel was moving on and so should he. Something which was easier said than done. The whole Santana fiasco had done nothing to stop him from still feeling raw. So he was relieved when Mercedes finally got fed up and sent them packing. He shot her a grateful smile. Chatting with Mercedes was the first time in ages that he'd had a conversation that didn't revert to Quinn at some point.

He'd been stunned when Mercedes admitted that she nearly hadn't come to prom. Nobody had asked her and it had got her down which is why she'd walked out of Glee club while they were discussing it. For a girl with so much going for her, there _had_ to have been guys wanting to take her out. And even though she wasn't his type he she was most definitely looking fine and bootylicious in her strapless dress tonight. He was already having trouble drawing his eyes away from her ample cleavage and was tempted there and then to tell her that she looked beautiful but somehow the moment passed and they were back to laughing about continuity errors in X-men.

Once they reached prom, Sam really enjoyed being part of the opening performance. OK not only was the song Friday incredible cheesy, there was also the minor detail of it actually being Saturday. But it seemed to go down well and he knew that together with Puck and Artie, the version they produced was a thousand times better than the original. Once on the dance floor, a couple of random Cheerios made a beeline for him and he got straight into the swing of things. To the side he noticed Mercedes and Santana were grinding away and burning up the dance floor and, not that he way eyeing them up or anything, but actually looked pretty damn sexy. After making his rounds of the dance floor he even manage to steal Tina away very briefly from Mike. Britanny had kept her promise and challenged him to a vigorous dance off which he knew he would lose before they even started. The girl could do crazy dance moves, even in six inch heels!

Sam was having such fun on the dance floor that he nearly didn't notice Mercedes had snuck back to her seat. She had a slightly sad wistful expression on her face and it made her look stunningly beautiful. Rachel walked past on her way to sing on stage just as the thought ran through his mind and without turning his head he said he asked in a surprised tone, "Don't you think she looks beautiful?" She turned her head to see where he was looking and smiled when she saw it was Mercedes. "Why don't you tell her yourself? She deserves to hear it. She's made a lot of effort tonight and I bet she'd love to dance."

Until that point it hadn't even occurred to him that as her 'date' he hadn't her to dance yet. But in all honesty he found himself enjoying just staring at her. Then, as Rachel began her slow sultry song he made his way over the floor to where she was sitting, not so subtly ignoring the faceless Cheerio who tried to pull him back out onto the floor. Observing her more closely, he'd noticed a subtle shift in Mercedes' mood. She'd gone from looking wistful to looking downright uncomfortable. Couples were holding each other close and slow dancing close all around her, and she nervously sipped at her drink and tugged at the corsage on her wrist as if looking for something to do with her hands while staring longingly at the dance floor.

"Mercedes, I just wanted to tell you that you look beautiful tonight." The words were out of his mouth before he'd even put any thought to them, but for once they were pretty on point and it gave him the confidence to continue. "Would you dance with me?" Suddenly his hand was stretched out towards her and he didn't even remember doing it.

Her eyes widened in obvious surprise, she appeared to think about it for a second, then she slowly stood and accepted his hand. It felt good. Soft and feminine, and surprisingly small in comparison to his own. Without words they stepped on to the dance floor and he put his arms around her for the dance.

Yep. Not only did she feel good, she also smelled amazing. Did she always have this smell of vanilla and cinnamon and all things sweet and good? She rested her head on his chest and seemed to melt slightly and again he was amazed at how well she fit into his arms. He's never been out with anyone her height, size or color and yet it felt like coming home. It puzzled him. Especially as the slow dance also made him suddenly think of Quinn. Was it the fact that it was a slow dance that she'd come into his mind? Or was it because of the harsh lyrics to Rachel's song 'Jar of Hearts' and the bitterness contained there?

But before he had a chance to think about it too deeply the song was over. They'd missed the first half of the song getting to the dance floor. But he sure as hell wasn't going to let her go with only half a dance. And he was damned if he was going let a sudden thought of Quinn lower his mood from a night he had been enjoying with Mercedes! The next song was upbeat and instead of releasing her, he immediately swung her out in a fast triple spin that made her giggle. He loved that sound. She'd giggled a lot that night and not only was it infectious, it made her dimples show. They were a strange combination cute and hot! He kept alternately spinning her and himself until they both started feel queasy and were laughing uncontrollably. Next came some techno music and they danced 'the robot'. He'd never seen a girl dance it and found her facial expression hilarious as she bobbed her head and performed jerky movements with her arms.

They stayed on the dance floor for the next few songs, laughing as much as they were dancing and acting the fool. Even when she was playing around, Mercedes still seemed to move with rhythm and grace and he really like that, especially when she decided to shake her 'booty' to some Destiny's Child. Puck had come over, trying to get a piece of the action, but she had firmly told him he 'wasn't ready for this jelly' and Lauren had rapidly appeared and pulled him away by his shirt collar despite his hilarious 'what did I do wrong?' facial expression.

After getting hot from dancing they returned to their seats with glasses of punch and had the most hysterical conversation which seemed to make sense only to themselves. Mike and Tina sat with them for a while but they didn't really get the conversation and were really only into each other anyway.

Maybe it was the music, maybe it was the dancing, or maybe someone had spiked the drink. All he knew was that he hadn't truly laughed so much since the day his dad announced they could not afford the repayments on their home and they would have to move to the motel room. And every time he made Mercedes laugh it brought a gorgeous glow to her countenance and it made his heart swell in the same way that it did when his little brother and sister threw their arms around him and told him that they loved him.

Time flew and suddenly, prom was over and it was time to go home. Jesse had been thrown out after his fight with Finn so one of Rachel's dads had come to drive them home. As they were leaving Sam noticed one of the flowers in the stage decorations was exactly the color of Mercedes' dress. The arrangements were set aside, clearly having already served their purpose so he took one of the largest blooms and caught up with the others on the way back to the car.

It was a quiet ride in the back. Rachel was at the front giving her dad a detailed account of the entire prom (but skimming over the fight and the Kurt/queen drama) and the pair at the back didn't feel like they had much to add. Mercedes was extremely quiet. After being bubbly and fun at the prom she was suddenly very serene again and spent most of the journey staring out of her window.

Sam spent most of the journey staring at her through the corner of his eye without daring to turn his head and waiting for the moments when the moonlight would catch off her cheek in a certain way that made her look like an angel. The one time she did catch him staring she shot him such a dazzling smile that it made him nervous and look away. Somehow she wasn't the same 'friend' that she had been at the beginning of the evening.

Before they knew it they were stopped at Mercedes' house as she had the earliest curfew. He was definitely sorry to see her go. As she opened her door to get out he remembered his Southern manners and told her to wait. He then got out, went round to her door, opened it and offered his arm. "It's prom night," he smiled, "let's finish this in style! Please allow me to escort you to your door."

Her eyes brightened and she stepped out gracefully and took his arm. It felt really good. As they headed up the path and out of the sight of the car he became hesitant.

"Is everything ok Sam?"

"Of course." But it wasn't. It wasn't ok at all. From nowhere he had the really strong urge to kiss her. But, well… this was _Mercedes_. He wasn't into her like _that._ Wasn't he? The thought had come to him so suddenly and it was so weird and unexpected that he really hoped she didn't see the blush that was starting to spread across his face. To hide his embarrassment he pulled out the flower he'd been clutching for the entire ride back. "Um… Mercedes… I know this has been a pretty unorthodox evening but if I'd been able to do things properly I would have got you the corsage for tonight." He felt his voice start to falter but pressed on, "I know it's the end of the night and its super cheesy, but I still wanted you to have this anyway to thank you for escorting me to prom tonight. It matches your dress and is almost as beautiful as you are."

Mercedes giggled nervously, clearly not believing the complement he had just paid but enjoying it anyway. Suddenly they were at the doorstep. Now he wanted to kiss her so badly it was freaking him out. He put it down to being at the point of the evening where traditionally there would be a makeout session with Quinn. Instead, he bit his lip and bowed with an old fashioned Southern flourish, taking her hand and kissing her fingers very softly, inhaling her smell for a final time and fighting the urge to linger. "Goodnight Mercedes."

He only half heard her reply over the beating of his heart before turning and heading back to the car.

Pulling out the phone that his dad had allowed him to use for the night he sent her a quick text before he lost his confidence. Rachel was still talking but he honestly heard nothing but the sound of her voice, no words.

He was too busy trying to work out why Mercedes Jones of all people was starting to cause a strange but pleasant fluttering in his stomach…

* * *

Everyone was asleep when Sam got back into the motel room and he didn't switch on the light. From memory he made his way around the room to his camp bed, removed his shoes, tie, opened his shirt and lay down with a heavy sigh.

The car journey from Mercedes' home to motel room had been a struggle. Rachel had kept trying to engage him in conversation when all he wanted to do was sit quietly with his own thoughts. And now for the first time he could.

His overriding feeling was of sudden overwhelming disappointment. Why hadn't replied to his text? He'd sent it the second he got back in the car. He'd wanted to thank her properly in person but his mind had blanked out as they walked up the path and he'd cursed himself on the way back for being so rude. He'd purposely not said goodnight in the message so that she had to reply and say it herself.

Surely she must have read it by now. He genuinely had just had one of the best nights of his life and she was a massive part of making it so. He now understood why Stevie and Stacy were so fond of her. She was so easy to like.

But it was the 'like' that was messing with his head. Something had hit him when they first danced together. A feeling of contentment that definitely didn't have with Santana, and what he'd aspired to have with Quinn. He sincerely hoped that when she'd rested her head on his chest she hadn't heard the rapid beating of his heart. Coz to be honest it was pounding at that moment and all of its own accord!

But Mercedes was so not his type.

Despite this, was he crushing on the girl?

At that startling thought his phone buzzed.

'Soz 4 delay. Hope ur not asleep. Mom asked 4 lots of detail. Had best nite eva! Thnx 4 being so awesome M x'

She thought he was awesome…

He closed his eyes briefly as a wave of tiredness passed over him while replying to the text.

Seconds later he was asleep…

* * *

Sam had spent the whole of Sunday musing over the events of the night before. At church Quinn had smiled at him and it flashed back into his mind that he had dreamed about her and what it would have been like to take her to the prom.

But once the singing started his mind turned to Mercedes. He could only begin to imagine how funky the singing was at her church. She'd invited him to visit and although he'd initially been hesitant, he'd reasoned that if Kurt (of all people) had been there and enjoyed it, he was far more likely to blend in.

He also dwelt on the possible reasonings for why he had suddenly been so desperate to kiss Mercedes at the end of the night. Maybe it wasn't a crush as he first assumed. Maybe it was simply a rebound reaction to seeing Quinn out with Finn. He'd wanted to kiss someone to end the night and Mercedes had simply been there. Luckily he'd styled it out with the hand kiss. She had looked beautiful at that moment. for the whole damn night actually, but the thought of her being caught off guard by surprise a kiss and going out all diva on him for crossing the like didn't bear thinking about!

How on earth had he considered it to be a crush? He was clearly extremely tired when he got back home last night! As far as he knew she'd dated Puck before just like the every other girl Glee club except Tina. He was no Puck. And she was no Quinn. So what had he been stressing about? He was a teenage boy and it was perfectly normal to find girls hot. Especially when they had so many common interests.

That morning he'd woken to the sound of his dad making coffee. Mr Evans had found some temporary manual work and needed the early start. The coffee always helped to dull the bright red eyes that he now permanently woke up with. The phone had slipped from Sam's hand and had wedged between his sheets at some point during the night. Waking up the screen he saw that he hadn't actually sent his message before falling asleep and the 'Goodnight' that blinked back at hom from it was no longer relevant for the morning.

"So how did it go?" His father's eyes were full of curiosity as he perched on the end of the bed, tying his shoes.

"Yeah it was cool."

"Your mom and I were so glad that you finally decided to go. Our prom was such an important night for us and we're glad you didn't miss out on that. Meet anyone special?" Since things had ended with Quinn, Mr Evans had noticed that his son remained silent on the subject of girls. He'd taken it badly but there was hope that he could start moving on soon.

"No. I already told you. I went as part of a group date with a couple of girls from the Glee club. All the cute girls are taken and I'm trying to concentrate on my football."

Mr Evans sighed. Clearly this was not the right time for this conversation. That Quinn was hot and perfect for him and they needed to reconcile. Either that or he needed to find another American Sweetheart like her.

Sam hastily deleted a couple of messages from the phone and handed it to his father. Since money had been short he and his father had been sharing it. Or rather, his father mostly had it although for prom night his parents had wanted to make sure that he was reachable and could call the motel if necessary. He had wanted to send another message to Mercedes but now there was no time and he didn't want any reply coming to the phone while his father had it so he silently handed it over to the man who yet again was leaving the motel without bothering to shave off his stubble.

"Did you use it much?"

Sam shook his head. "No. Just for a couple of 'I'm home safe' messages." And he handed over the phone and went to brush his teeth, still wondering what Mercedes would be doing with her day.


End file.
